Abstract:

As an important component of the cryosphere, sea ice is very sensitive to the climate change. The study of the sea ice physics needs accurate sea ice thickness. This paper presents an electromagnetic-induction (EM) technique which can be used to measure the sea ice thickness distribution efficiently, and the successful application in Bothnian Bay. Based on the electromagnetic field theory and the electrical properties of sea ice and seawater, EM technique can detect the distance between the instrument and the ice/water interface accurately, than the sea ice thickness is obtained. Contrastive analysis of the apparent conductivity data obtained by EM and the value of drill-hole at same positions allows a construction of a transformable formula of the apparent conductivity to sea ice thickness. The verification of the sea ice thickness calculated by this formula indicates that EM technique is able to get reliable sea ice thickness with average relative error of only 12%. The statistic of all ice thickness profiles shows that the level ice distribution in Bothnian Bay was 0.4-0.6 m.

Key words: Electrom agnetic-induction, Sea ice, Thickness, Bothnian Bay