Eur. Phys. J. E (2017) 40: 25
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2017-11512-x

Regular Article

Formation of brine channels in sea ice

¹ Münster University of Applied Sciences, Stegerwaldstraße 39, 48565, Steinfurt, Germany
² International Institute of Physics (IIP), Av. Odilon Gomes de Lima 1722, 59078-400, Natal, Brazil
³ Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187, Dresden, Germany
⁴ Alfred Wegener Institut, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570, Bremerhaven, Germany
⁵ Münster University of Applied Sciences, Corrensstraße 25, 48149, Münster, Germany

^* e-mail: morawetz@fh-muenster.de

Received: 11 June 2016
Accepted: 6 February 2017
Published online: 3 March 2017

Abstract

Liquid salty micro-channels (brine) between growing ice platelets in sea ice are an important habitat for CO₂-binding microalgaea with great impact on polar ecosystems. The structure formation of ice platelets is microscopically described and a phase field model is developed. The pattern formation during solidification of the two-dimensional interstitial liquid is considered by two coupled order parameters, the tetrahedricity as structure of ice and the salinity. The coupling and time evolution of these order parameters are described by a consistent set of three model parameters. They determine the velocity of the freezing process and the structure formation, the phase diagram, the super-cooling and super-heating region, and the specific heat. The model is used to calculate the short-time frozen micro-structures. The obtained morphological structure is compared with the vertical brine pore space obtained from X-ray computed tomography.