We imaged first-year sea ice using micro-computed tomography to visualize, capture, and quantify the 3-D complex structure of salt water channels weaving through sea ice. From these data, we then built a mathematical network to better understand the pathways transporting heat, gases, and salts between the ocean and the atmosphere. Powered with this structural knowledge, we can create new modeled brine channels for a given sea ice depth and temperature that accurately mimic field conditions.

This work analyzes the chemical composition of blowing snow collected over first-year Antarctic sea ice to assess its role in bromine activation during the polar sunrise. We found lofted snow to be depleted in Br- relative to Cl- by proportionally increasing amounts with height. This is the first study to use field data to substantiate modeling results implicating blowing snow as the location for initial halogen activation. We also found lofted snow to be depleted in SO4 and enriched in NO3.