Spatio-temporal characteristics of the sea-ice volume of the Bohai Sea, China, in winter 2009/10
[Date:2013-02-19]

Chengyu Liu1, Wei Gu1, Jinlong Chao1, Lantao Li1, Shuai Yuan2, Yingjun Xu1
1 State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China;
2 National Marine Environment Monitoring Center, Dalian, China.
 
Abstract: To investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of sea-ice resource, we used sea-ice volume to measure the amount of sea-ice resource in the Bohai Sea, China. The sea-ice area was extracted from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) remote-sensing images using the zonal threshold method. The sea-ice thickness was estimated using a sea-ice model based on shortwave radiation theory and field measurements. The spatio-temporal characteristics of sea-ice volume were then analysed using GIS technology. The results indicate that the Bohai Sea experienced two sea-ice volume peaks in winter 2009/10. The largest sea-ice volume was in Liaodong Bay (~80.26% of the entire sea-ice volume of the Bohai Sea). Bohai Bay had the second largest ice volume, and Laizhou Bay the smallest. The relationship between sea-ice volume and distance from shore is essentially exponential. The proportion of total sea-ice volume that is 0–10km from shore is ~42.43%, whereas the proportion that is 100–110km from shore is only 0.002%.
 
Published in Annals of Glaciology. 2013, 54(62), doi: 10.3189/2013AoG62A305.