Heat Flux Variation over Sea-ice Observed at the Coastal Area of the King Sejong Station, Antarctica

This presentation aims to show variations of sensible heat flux and latent heat flux over sea-ice observed in recent years at the coast of King Sejong Station on King George Island, Antarctica. Flux data are divided into three groups according to the sea ice condition: “Freezing”, “Frozen”, and “Melting”. Sea ice status is determined based on daily monitoring of sea state and hourly photos looking at the Marian Cove in front of the King Sejong Station. The division of periods enabled us to look into the heat flux variations depending on the sea-ice conditions. In short, latent heat flux is usually upward over sea-ice most of the time while sensible heat flux is downward from atmosphere to sea-ice. Magnitudes of the fluxes are small over sea-ice but increases when freezing or melting of sea-ice is occurring. Especially, latent heat flux increases five to six times compared to frozen sea-ice period implying that early melting of sea-ice would cause five to six times of moisture supply to the atmosphere. Further investigations of heat flux variation with varying sea-ice conditions will help us understand the freezing and melting processes of sea-ice so we can improve sea-ice prediction and polar climate changes.