CPOM Staff based at UCL
Nikhil Radia
| email:nvr
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tel: 0207.679.4406 |
| fax: 0207.679.7883 |
Project Title: Incorporation of frazil ice into a sea ice/ocean model.
The aim of the PhD is to develop a new model of the production of frazil ice crystals suitable for the sea ice/ocean component of a GCM. This will be done by building upon the frazil dynamics model of Holland & Feltham (2005), which was developed to describe the production and precipitation of frazil crystals in the ocean cavity beneath an ice shelf.
The model will be adapted to the situation of frazil ice formation within open water regions in a sea ice cover, which will involve an examination of fundamental model assumptions. The model will be built and tested in stages, using laboratory and field studies. The frazil model will be coupled to a vertical ocean mixing model with an imposed horizontal advection and compared with estimates of the ocean-air heat flux measured over leads and polynyas. Frazil ice production, heat loss, and salt release rates will be calculated and related to GCM variables, e.g. sea surface temperature and air temperaturem in order to determine parameterisation for sea ice and ocean models. The POL Arctic shelf seas model will be used to test the frazil model.
The project will involve collaboration with the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Liverpool.