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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1990-91: VUWAE 35

2 PROPOSED PROGRAMME

2 PROPOSED PROGRAMME

The behaviour of the optical properties of sea ice is of interest, both for its impact on polar ecosystems and for the information it gives about the physical structure of the ice. It is a field which is rather little studied, principally because definitive in situ measurements are not easily performed on this inhomogeneous, anisotropic, and changing material. In the 1985 season, we tested a new measurement geometry which has permitted us to relate more fully than ever before, the optical behaviour of sea ice to its physical structure, and following experiments performed in the 1985, 1986, and 1989 spring seasons we published a number of papers on the subject1-8. The most striking result is that the surface layer of the ice is much more transparent early in the spring than it is later, which has implications for under-ice life4,6-8.

Our objectives during the 1990 spring were twofold: (i) to extend our measurements to as early in the spring as possible, and (ii) to test an entirely new optical experiment intended to complement the one we have performed to date. This second experiment is a technologically page 3 demanding one, for it involves running a very fast pulsed dye laser, fast detection equipment and a computer in a harsh environment.