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Preferential Summer Melt of Deeper Ridge Keels in the Central Arctic Ocean from Multibeam Sonar Data
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  • Evgenii Salganik,
  • Benjamin Allen Lange,
  • Christian Katlein,
  • Ilkka S. O. Matero,
  • Philipp Anhaus,
  • Morven Muilwijk,
  • Knut Vilhelm Høyland,
  • Mats Anders Granskog
Evgenii Salganik
Norwegian Polar Institute

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Benjamin Allen Lange
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
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Christian Katlein
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
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Ilkka S. O. Matero
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
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Philipp Anhaus
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
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Morven Muilwijk
Norwegian Polar Institute
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Knut Vilhelm Høyland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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Mats Anders Granskog
Norwegian Polar Institute
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Abstract

Sea-ice ridges constitute a large fraction of the total Arctic sea-ice volume (up to 40%); nevertheless, they are the least studied part of the Arctic ice pack. Here we investigate sea-ice melt rates using rare underwater multibeam data that cover a period of one month during the advanced melt stage in the Arctic summer. We show that the degree of bottom melt increases with ice draft for first-year and second-year level ice, and a first-year ice ridge keel, with an average of 0.45 m, 0.55 m, and 0.95 m of total snow and ice melt in the observation period, respectively. While bottom melt rates of ridge keels are 3-4 times higher than first-year level ice, surface melt rates are almost identical. Our estimate attributes 57% of the ridge keel melt variability to keel draft (36%), slope (32%), and width (27%).
28 Mar 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
03 Apr 2023Published in ESS Open Archive