Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

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

Aims:

Aims:

There has been considerable speculation on the effects of the enhanced UV resulting from the ozone hole during the Antarctic spring. It has been suggested that the sea ice algae which grow rapidly during the spring would be particulary vulnerable to this radiation. The algae grow on the bottom surface of the sea ice. The transmission of ultraviolet and visible light through the sea ice using an artificial light source has been the study of K132-Buckley/Trodahl during the last three years, who have shown that not more than a few percent of incident ultraviolet radiation passes through the ice, being scattered by brine inclusions, and absorbed by the sea ice algae at the bottom of the ice.

Our programme has two parts. The first is to characterise the amount of UV and visible radiation falling onto the sea ice - the spectrum, the intensity, where it comes from in the sky, and the polarisation of the radiation. The second is to study the effects of enhanced UV radiation on sea ice algae under radiation levels both visible and ultraviolet which are typical of those encountered insitu.