Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

The ice-ocean system is investigated on inertial to monthly timescales using winter 2009-2010 observations in the Canada Basin from the first Ice-Tethered Profiler equipped with a velocity sensor. Profiles of temperature, salinity, and velocity were obtained in combination with direct estimates of the vertical turbulent heat, salt, and momentum fluxes just below the ice-ocean interface. Ekman veering was a dominant process in the surface layer that caused currents to spiral clockwise and decay with depth. Periods of elevated internal wave activity were associated with changes to stratification primarily within the surface layer. Internal wave activity, as well as brine rejection during ice formation, modulated the turbulent heat and salt fluxes. Just below the ice-ocean interface, the production and dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy were largely balanced. The ice-ocean drag coefficient also varied by an order of magnitude. Analyses of this and future ITP-V data sets will advance understanding of ice-ocean interactions and their parameterizations in numerical models.