STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF SUB-ICE CONVECTION IN WINTER ARCTIC LEADS: COMPARISON OF FULL-SCALE AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

P. N. Golovin

The paper presents results of full-scale studies of convection in the subsurface layer of winter leads (SLL) in the Arctic and results of laboratory experiments on the study of sub-ice convection. Based on the geometric similarity of sub-ice convection simulated under laboratory conditions and under natural conditions, a comparative analysis of the structural convection features in different periods of convection development has been performed. The increased salinity layer in the SLL beneath ice is interpreted as a laminar-convection layer. Under quasi-stationary conditions, it is structured by laminar “soliks.” The large salinity inversion value in the SLL below this layer characterizes an equilibrium salinity difference between “soliks” and the ambient liquid. Further, with brine filtration from mushy ice, the quasi-stationary laminar jets develop against the background of soliks and regardless of them. The salinity inversion in the SLL is a layer where laminar soliks and jets are dispersed by convective turbulence after they have experienced a hydrodynamic breakdown.