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A Possible Sea Ice Restoration Plan..

Using some of [Pauling, Bitz 2021] findings (**), in addition to some of our assumptions, an example of AquaFreezing method is the following:

We can flood 20 cm of snow, with 15 cm of sea water (natural snow has density ~250 kg/m3) in 1 week, which will add +70cm of ice in a season, as it will reduce insulation and accelerate the natural accretion from the base of the sea ice. We can protect the sea ice with one week of work at the end of the season, by creating artificial snow

Results of flooding when frozen.jpg

Figure: Results after flooding snow to preserve and restore sea ice with uncovered ice seen in the foreground indicating recent 'AquaFreezing'.  

These interventions will suffice to:
Preserve the existing full-year sea-ice areas with interventions every 10 years (*)

  • Restore Level 1 areas with interventions every 5 years (*)

  • Restore Level 2 areas with interventions every 3 years (*)

  • Extend duration in other areas with yearly re-icing (*)

The areas to be covered every year would be:

  • 270,000 km2 to preserve (10% of total)

  • 540,000 km2 to restore Level 1 areas (20% of total)

  • 570,000 km2 to restore Level 2 areas (⅓ of total)

  • 5,000,000 km2 to extend (all areas, as the sea ice will melt every summer)

(*) Note that sea ice is constantly in motion - each year the areas taking priority would be chosen based on the ice motion patterns - these are just averages

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(**) Source: Pauling, A. G., and C. M. Bitz (2021). " Arctic sea ice response to flooding of the snow layer in future warming scenarios" Earth's Future. 9(10): e2021EF002136 https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002136
 

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