Monday, June 30, 2014

And NOW the Ocean is the HEAT SINK

~Top of sea ice Final stages of a buoy before it floats on sea water.


    June 13 2014,  buoy 2014b sits on top of sea ice with heat taking hold of its surface fuelled by the sun:
   The ice was mostly colder than air and sea water.  Ta>Tw>Ti,  sea ice holding the buoy up is a heat sink,  very bad for its health.   Ice survives between thermistor 5 and 17 ,  about 120 cm thick.

   2 weeks later,  the sea becomes the heat sink:
    Ta>Ti>Tw,  sea ice barely survives between T(9) and T(16),  70 cm thick really soft and rotten.
Was it not for natures glorious ,  no brilliant! - latent heat of fusion point which changes as sea ice becomes saltier,  the ice exists at higher temperatures than sea water!  Now we've seen what happened,  in a mere 2 weeks, sea ice owes its existence to sea water temperature,  which is nearly constant.  While soon there will be no more surface air heat to absorb ,  because top of sea ice is melting fast (40 cm in a week),  while bottom tries to last.     WD June 30, 2014
   Day later evening, inexorable progression towards annihilation, what remains of sea ice becomes warmer and warmer,net solar forcing exceeds the cooling effect of the ocean which itself warms since having become a heat sink.  But the ice survives, nevertheless the onslaught,  this can be seen by rapid diurnal cooling, (extreme left of graph), while sea water exhibits hardly a wave whimper (extreme right).   But time is running out since 0 C progression with thermistors, from left to right, continues.  Wd(july 1,2014)

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