contents.gifindex.gifprev1.gifnext1.gif

Ice thickness (calculated)

General description

Technical description - Mean ice thickness

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness

General description

These tables were prepared by Work Package 2 (Box B) as part of INSROP Phase 2 (See Working Paper no. 121). The tables include Year, Month and a number of fields with numeric names. These numbers refer to ship route segments included in the Tbl_1 shapefile set, which is a part of the dataset provided by INSROP Project I.4.2. These segments are an extract of the ship routes as defined in INSROP Working paper no. 108 (1998), prepared by Work Package 1 (Box B) as part of INSROP Phase 2.

For calculating the parameters (7 - 9) connected with the ice thickness the initial data described in Section 8.4.2 were used. For the summer period the data on the ice melting stages over the 1954 to 1986 period were used.

Ice melting stages present a characteristic which was determined during visual airborne observations according to the national scale units (from 0 to 5). The ice melting stage equaling 0, means that melting indications are absent, 5 units mean that ice has strongly decayed and almost disappeared.

The methods for calculating the parameters in the summer and winter differed: the calculations for the summer months (June-September) took into account the thickness decrease due to ice melting. For this purpose an empirical dependence between the relative thickness change in the process of melting - deltaH/H and the ice melting stage was used - R (Appel, Gudkovich, 1977):

R = 11.1 - 10 / (0.9025 + 1.02*deltaH/H) (1)

From Equation (1) the expression for calculating the ice thickness (Hp) can be derived:

Hp = Hv - 0.9025*R*Hv / (11.322 + 1.02*R) (2),

where Hv is the ice thickness of a definite age category in May (by the end of the period of growth).

Equation (2) allows taking into account the ice thickness changes due to melting from the top in close ice. With appearance of open water zones among ice the process of melting becomes more rapid due to the heat absorbed by water. For taking this effect into account the following formula was used:

p = 0.1*[N + (1-N)*k]*Hp (3),

where N is ice concentration in tenths; Hp is the ice thickness calculated by formula (2); k is a non-dimensional coefficient (Table 8.4).

Table 8.4. The k coefficient values in June-September

Concentration
June
July
August
September
10/10
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
9/10
0.975
0.95
0.925
0.90
8/10
0.95
0.90
0.85
0.80
7/10
0.925
0.85
0.775
0.70
6/10
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
5/10
0.875
0.75
0.625
0.50
4/10
0.85
0.70
0.55
0.40
3/10
0.825
0.65
0.475
0.30
2/10
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
1/10
0.775
0.55
0.325
0.10
0/10
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00

During the cold period of the year (October-May) the ice thickness of each age category was assumed to be equal to the middle values within the thickness range as indicated in the sea-ice nomenclature (International symbols ...., 1984). The only exception was made for thick first-year ice whose thickness within the sea ice nomenclature range (120 cm-200 cm) was estimated taking into account the data of measurements at polar stations.

After estimating the ice thickness of each age category observed within a sub-segment, the values of parameters were calculated:

- parameter 7 as a weighted thickness mean of all age categories observed taking into account their partial concentration;

- parameter 8 as the least thickness of all age categories observed;

- parameter 9 as the largest thickness of all age categories observed.

Technical description - Mean ice thickness

Technical description - Mean ice thickness for route S by year and month

Technical description - Mean ice thickness for route N by year and month

Technical description - Mean ice thickness for route S by year and month

Table source file name: p07_s.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Mean ice thickness for route S by year and month

447 records, 144 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[1] -- "1" (Numeric, no decimals)

...

[142] -- "142" (Numeric, no decimals)

Technical description - Mean ice thickness for route N by year and month

Table source file name: p07_n.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Mean ice thickness for route N by year and month

447 records, 132 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[201] -- "201" (Numeric, no decimals)

....

[330] -- "330" (Numeric, no decimals)

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness for route S by year and month

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness for route N by year and month

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness for route S by year and month

Table source file name: p08_s.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Minimum ice thickness for route S by year and month

447 records, 144 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[1] -- "1" (Numeric, no decimals)

...

[142] -- "142" (Numeric, no decimals)

Technical description - Minimum ice thickness for route N by year and month

Table source file name: p08_n.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Minimum ice thickness for route N by year and month

447 records, 132 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[201] -- "201" (Numeric, no decimals)

....

[330] -- "330" (Numeric, no decimals)

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness for route S by year and month

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness for route N by year and month

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness for route S by year and month

Table source file name: p09_s.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Maximum ice thickness for route S by year and month

447 records, 144 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[1] -- "1" (Numeric, no decimals)

...

[142] -- "142" (Numeric, no decimals)

Technical description - Maximum ice thickness for route N by year and month

Table source file name: p09_n.txt

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\workpackage2

Table type: DText table.

* Maximum ice thickness for route N by year and month

447 records, 132 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[Year] -- "Year" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Month] -- "Month" (Numeric, no decimals)

[201] -- "201" (Numeric, no decimals)

....

[330] -- "330" (Numeric, no decimals)