18-Feb

More Pancake ice today, lots more – amazing stuff. The sea is calm and the ocean around us looks like a giant lily pond with while lilies. This is a certainly temperamental place with wildly contrasting weather, ferocious storm one day and a pancake lily pond the next

Sea Ice Types.

Frazil Ice – The sea begins to freeze when temperatures drop below minus 1.8 Celsius, which is the first stage in the formation of sea ice. This is where small crystals of ice form and the water takes on a soupy or porridge appearance. These crystals are called “Frazil Ice”. This frazil ice can quickly become a thicker “Sludge Ice” and in calm weather will freeze solid in only a few hours.

Grease ice is a very thin layer of frazil crystals clumped together, the second stage of development of sea ice. A soupy layer of ice in the stage of formation looking a little like a film of oil on he water, it smoothens the water surface.

Shuga: accumulation of spongy ice lumps. It is the stage up from grease ice and smoothens the water surface even more. Huge waves of a swell are sometimes easily visible in such zones and the dark patterns formed where broken up by the wind.

Pancake Ice. Freezing sea surface will form thin sheets of ice, which break up into small plates that then grow to larger plates 2m diameter. These plates gently collide with one another thus becoming rounded and forming furry uplifted edge. Water ripples add also splash over the edges to further build up the edges further until the area look like a white lily pond.

Grey ice, first year ice: large ice floes often pushed into each other by wind. It appears mostly rather dark grey on a radar image. The swell can hardly move this ice up and down.

Fast ice: fast ice or land fast ice is also first year ice found near the coasts. This ice type is very smooth and hence dark in the radar image. A penetrating ship leaves a trail behind. Often icebreakers need to cross it in order to reach research stations on shore. It might be hard for an icebreaker to pass through it.
Second and multiyear ice: this can be sea ice many meters thick, often forming huge ice floes or if nearly melted they form small icebergs.

Pack Ice is broken fast ice.