A New Apparatus for Monitoring Sea Ice Thickness Based on the Magnetostrictive-Delay-Line Principle

Abstract High-precision ice thickness observations are required to gain a better understanding of ocean–ice–atmosphere interactions and to validate numerical sea ice models. A new apparatus for monitoring sea ice and snow thickness has been developed, based on the magnetostrictive-delay-line (MDL) principle for positioning sensors. This system is suited for monitoring fixed measurement sites on undeformed ice. The apparatus presented herein has been tested on landfast ice near Zhongshan Station, East Antarctica, for about 6 months during the austral autumn and winter of 2006; valid data records from the deployment are available for more than 90% of the deployment’s duration. The apparatus’s precision has been estimated to be ±0.002 m for the deployment. Therefore, it is possible that this apparatus may become a standard for sea ice/snow thickness monitoring.