Snow on Antarctic Sea ice

Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a complex and highly variable role in air-s ea-ice interaction processes and the Earth's climate system. Using data col lected mostly during, the past 10 years, this paper reviews the following t opics: snow thickness and snow type and their geographical and seasonal var iations; snow grain size, density, and salinity; frequency of occurrence of slush; thermal conductivity, snow surface temperature, and temperature gra dients within snow; and the effect of snow thickness on albedo. Major findi ngs include large regional and seasonal differences in snow properties and thicknesses; the consequences of thicker snow and thinner ice in the Antarc tic relative to the Arctic (e.g., the importance of flooding and snow-ice f ormation); the potential impact of increasing snowfall resulting from globa l climate change; lower observed values of snow thermal conductivity than t hose typically used in models; periodic large-scale melt in winter; and the contrast in summer melt processes between the Arctic and the Antarctic. Bo th climate modeling and remote sensing would benefit by taking account of t he differences between the two polar regions.