Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds
Climate change, amplified in the far north, has led to rapid sea ice decline in recent years. In the summer, melt ponds form on the surface of Arctic sea ice, significantly lowering the ice reflectivity (albedo) and thereby accelerating ice melt. Pond geometry controls the details of this crucial fe...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114555 |
| _version_ | 1811083972007952384 |
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| author | Popović, Predrag Silber, Mary Abbot, Dorian S. Cael, B. B. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Popović, Predrag Silber, Mary Abbot, Dorian S. Cael, B. B. |
| author_sort | Popović, Predrag |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Climate change, amplified in the far north, has led to rapid sea ice decline in recent years. In the summer, melt ponds form on the surface of Arctic sea ice, significantly lowering the ice reflectivity (albedo) and thereby accelerating ice melt. Pond geometry controls the details of this crucial feedback; however, a reliable model of pond geometry does not currently exist. Here we show that a simple model of voids surrounding randomly sized and placed overlapping circles reproduces the essential features of pond patterns. The only two model parameters, characteristic circle radius and coverage fraction, are chosen by comparing, between the model and the aerial photographs of the ponds, two correlation functions which determine the typical pond size and their connectedness. Using these parameters, the void model robustly reproduces the ponds’ area-perimeter and area-abundance relationships over more than 6 orders of magnitude. By analyzing the correlation functions of ponds on several dates, we also find that the pond scale and the connectedness are surprisingly constant across different years and ice types. Moreover, we find that ponds resemble percolation clusters near the percolation threshold. These results demonstrate that the geometry and abundance of Arctic melt ponds can be simply described, which can be exploited in future models of Arctic melt ponds that would improve predictions of the response of sea ice to Arctic warming. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:42:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/114555 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:42:32Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1145552022-09-28T09:34:42Z Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds Popović, Predrag Silber, Mary Abbot, Dorian S. Cael, B. B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cael, B. B. Climate change, amplified in the far north, has led to rapid sea ice decline in recent years. In the summer, melt ponds form on the surface of Arctic sea ice, significantly lowering the ice reflectivity (albedo) and thereby accelerating ice melt. Pond geometry controls the details of this crucial feedback; however, a reliable model of pond geometry does not currently exist. Here we show that a simple model of voids surrounding randomly sized and placed overlapping circles reproduces the essential features of pond patterns. The only two model parameters, characteristic circle radius and coverage fraction, are chosen by comparing, between the model and the aerial photographs of the ponds, two correlation functions which determine the typical pond size and their connectedness. Using these parameters, the void model robustly reproduces the ponds’ area-perimeter and area-abundance relationships over more than 6 orders of magnitude. By analyzing the correlation functions of ponds on several dates, we also find that the pond scale and the connectedness are surprisingly constant across different years and ice types. Moreover, we find that ponds resemble percolation clusters near the percolation threshold. These results demonstrate that the geometry and abundance of Arctic melt ponds can be simply described, which can be exploited in future models of Arctic melt ponds that would improve predictions of the response of sea ice to Arctic warming. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 2388357) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1623064) 2018-04-05T13:26:59Z 2018-04-05T13:26:59Z 2018-04 2017-10 2018-04-04T18:00:15Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 1079-7114 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114555 Popović, Predrag et al. "Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds." Physical Review Letters 120, 14 (April 2018): 148701 © 2018 American Physical Society en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.148701 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Popović, Predrag Silber, Mary Abbot, Dorian S. Cael, B. B. Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title | Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title_full | Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title_fullStr | Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title_short | Simple Rules Govern the Patterns of Arctic Sea Ice Melt Ponds |
| title_sort | simple rules govern the patterns of arctic sea ice melt ponds |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114555 |
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