2023-03-06: Guest post from Leif Eriksson, Chalmers
Our cruise in the Gulf of Bothnia is now close to its end. During these two weeks we have seen many different types of sea ice, from the formation of thin new ice to 20 cm thick ice floes. Going through all photos that Denis Demchev have taken we saw a possibility to put together a presentation of sea ice development for our evening seminar on Skagerak. A short poster version of this presentation is attached to this blog post.
In addition to thermal growth of sea ice we have also seen how wind, waves, snow, flooding and rafting contribute to the sea ice development and the large diversity of sea ice conditions. The video shows an example of rafting, where a large piece of thin ice is pushed under another piece of ice. It is likely that these pieces will freeze together to form an ice floe with several layers. When we leave this cruise it will be with more experience of sea ice conditions and a lot of data to analyse
Rafting of two large pieces of new sea ice. Video shot from RV Skagerak by Denis Demchev.