Under-Sea Ice Diffusing Optical Communications

Optical Propagation in Sea Ice

One objective is to demonstrate and establish the viability of a new method that I developed for measuring the complete beam spread function of sea ice. Because the BSF is equivalent to the point spread function (PSF), a related objective is to use the measured BSF to investigate the approach to the asymptotic light field generated by an embedded light source. My theoretical / modeling objectiv...

Massive phytoplankton blooms under Arctic sea ice.

Phytoplankton blooms over Arctic Ocean continental shelves are thought to be restricted to waters free of sea ice. Here, we document a massive phytoplankton bloom beneath fully consolidated pack ice far from the ice edge in the Chukchi Sea, where light transmission has increased in recent decades because of thinning ice cover and proliferation of melt ponds. The bloom was characterized by high ...

Modeling of Optical Beam Spread in Sea Ice

The two objectives of this year’s work were (1) to finish analyzing the BSF data taken during the main field experiment of the Electromagnetic Properties of Sea Ice (EMPOSI) Accelerated Research Initiative at Barrow, Alaska in 1994, and (2) to investigate the extent to which it is possible to model light propagation in sea beginning with the ice physical properties. In particular, I wished to s...

Ultraviolet levels under sea ice during the antarctic spring.

Increasing Antarctic Sea Ice under Warming Atmospheric and Oceanic Conditions

Estimates of sea ice extent based on satellite observations show an increasing Antarctic sea ice cover from 1979 to 2004 even though in situ observations show a prevailing warming trend in both the atmosphere and the ocean. This riddle is explored here using a global multicategory thickness and enthalpy distribution sea ice model coupled to an ocean model. Forced by the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis dat...