K131: Sea Ice and Southern Ocean Processes

This programme has three complementary and intersecting objectives:

Thermal properties and growth processes in sea ice, which focuses on aspects of sea ice that determine how it controls the relationship between the ocean beneath and the atmosphere above;
Ocean wave / sea ice linkages relevant to climate, where the aim is to determine how the sea ice interacts with the sea-borne wave field, especially in areas of spatial variability and abrupt transitions;
Southern Ross Sea oceanography, which focuses on circulation in Antarctic fjords, turbulence under the sea ice and internal waves in McMurdo Sound. Conventional and novel techniques include NMR, thermal and optical characterisation, electrical resistance and modelling of wave propagation in heterogeneous media.