Time-series observations of the structure and properties of brackish ice in the Gulf of Finland

The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed brackish water basin where sea ice occurs annually. The sea-ice study, discussed here was conducted as a Finnish-Japanese cooperative research programme entitled "Ice Climatology of the Okhotsk and Baltic Seas" to investigate the structure and properties of the brackish ice in the Baltic Sea. Ice, snow and water samples were Collected at Santala Bay, near the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, once a week from 20 January to 12 April 1999. The salinity and oxygen isotopic composition (delta(18)O) of the samples were measured. The ice samples were analyzed stratigraphically. The ice was composed of a granular upper layer, occupying approximately one-third of the entire ice thickness, and underlying columnar ice toward the bottom. The crystallographic structure and delta(18)O values reveal that the granular ice consisted of two layers with different origins, i.e. snow ice and superimposed ice. The fraction of snow relative to the total thickness was estimated. The limited data show a significant contribution of the snow cover to the sea-ice development. The salinity of the granular ice was higher than that of the columnar ice, implying that the mechanism of entrapment of brine may be different between the two ice types.