By early June, the sea ice has melted back a lot. Conditions are warmer for field work, but can be windy still – and we now need to contend with melt water. At this time of year, the sun is getting stronger and the snow on top of the ice is melting more and more each day.
We were a large group this trip – Christina Williams who has been working on the radar imagery made her first trip to Barrow, joining myself, Hajo and Chris from UAF. The super-enthusiastic Ken Golden (aka frogman) was up from the University of Utah. Ken has long been interested in the fluid permeability of sea ice, so melt season is his time of year. As it is for Don Perovich, from CRREL New Hampshire. Don works on the spectral albedo. He is an expert on what effect the ponding water has on how much incident sunlight is reflected back.
