Sea Ice Group at the Geophysical Institute logo1
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Lars Backstrom

MS graduate

My supervisor is Hajo Eicken. I received my MSc. in Geophysics at Uppsala University, Sweden. I returned to school in 2002 after working as an analyst in the UK reinsurance industry and as a university teacher in Mexico. I study the thermal and dielectric properties of sea ice. I use arrays that are deployed in the landfast ice outside Barrow, Alaska, and in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. I use Omega 44031 thermistors and Vital Time Domain Reflectometry Hydraprobes.

Together with temperature, salinity is one of the state variables of sea ice. I work on using the dielectric properties of the brine inclusions to estimate the bulk salinity of the ice. I will then use my results to look at how much convective transfer of heat affects the total heat transfer budget of the ice. The convective properties of the ice being closely linked to its bulk salinity and temperature.