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| Titel |
Transition in the fractal geometry of Arctic melt ponds |
| VerfasserIn |
C. Hohenegger, B. Alali, K. R. Steffen, D. K. Perovich, K. M. Golden |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1994-0416
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: The Cryosphere ; 6, no. 5 ; Nr. 6, no. 5 (2012-10-19), S.1157-1162 |
| Datensatznummer |
250003793
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/tc-6-1157-2012.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| During the Arctic melt season, the sea ice surface undergoes a remarkable
transformation from vast expanses of snow covered ice to complex mosaics of
ice and melt ponds. Sea ice albedo, a key parameter in climate modeling, is
determined by the complex evolution of melt pond configurations. In fact,
ice–albedo feedback has played a major role in the recent declines of the
summer Arctic sea ice pack. However, understanding melt pond evolution
remains a significant challenge to improving climate projections. By
analyzing area–perimeter data from hundreds of thousands of melt ponds, we
find here an unexpected separation of scales, where pond fractal dimension
D transitions from 1 to 2 around a critical length scale of
100 m2 in area. Pond complexity increases rapidly
through the transition as smaller ponds coalesce to form large connected
regions, and reaches a maximum for ponds larger than 1000 m2, whose
boundaries resemble space-filling curves, with D ≈ 2. These universal
features of Arctic melt pond evolution are similar to phase transitions in
statistical physics. The results impact sea ice albedo, the transmitted
radiation fields under melting sea ice, the heat balance of sea ice and the
upper ocean, and biological productivity such as under ice phytoplankton
blooms. |
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