Evidence of Freezing Pressure in Sea Ice Discrete Brine Inclusions and Its Impact on Aqueous-Gaseous Equilibrium

Sea ice in part controls surface water properties and the ocean-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases at high latitudes. In sea ice, gas exists dissolved in brine and as air bubbles contained in liquid brine inclusions or as bubbles trapped directly within the ice matrix. Current research on gas dynamics within the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interface has been based on the premise that brine with dissolved air becomes supersaturated with respect to the atmosphere during ice growth. Based on Henry's law, gas bubbles within brine should grow when brine reaches saturation during cooling, given that the total partial pressure of atmospheric gases is above the implicit pressure in brine of 1 atm. Using high-resolution light microscopy time series imagery of gas bubble evolution inside discrete brine pockets, we observed bubbles shrinking during cooling events in response to the development of freezing pressure above 3 atm. During warming of discrete brine pockets, existing bubbles expand and new bubbles nucleate in response to depressurization. Pressure variation within these inclusions has direct impacts on aqueous-gaseous equilibrium, indicating that Henry's law at a constant pressure of 1 atm is inadequate to assess the partitioning between dissolved and gaseous fractions of gas in sea ice. This new evidence of pressure build-up in discrete brine inclusions controlling the solubility of gas and nucleation of bubbles in these inclusions has the potential to affect the transport pathways of air bubbles and dissolved gases within sea ice-ocean-atmosphere interface and modifies brine biochemical properties

Sea ice contribution to the air–sea CO₂ exchange in the Arctic and Southern Oceans

Although salt rejection from sea ice is a key process in deep-water formation in ice-covered seas, the concurrent rejection of CO2 and the subsequent effect on air–sea CO2 exchange have received little attention. We review the mechanisms by which sea ice directly and indirectly controls the air–sea CO2 exchange and use recent measurements of inorganic carbon compounds in bulk sea ice to estimate that oceanic CO2 uptake during the seasonal cycle of sea-ice growth and decay in ice-covered oceanic regions equals almost half of the net atmospheric CO2 uptake in ice-free polar seas. This sea-ice driven CO2 uptake has not been considered so far in estimates of global oceanic CO2 uptake. Net CO2 uptake in sea-ice–covered oceans can be driven by; (1) rejection during sea–ice formation and sinking of CO2-rich brine into intermediate and abyssal oceanic water masses, (2) blocking of air–sea CO2 exchange during winter, and (3) release of CO2-depleted melt water with excess total alkalinity during sea-ice decay and (4) biological CO2 drawdown during primary production in sea ice and surface oceanic waters

Study of Systems and Technology for Liquid Hydrogen Production Independent of Fossil Fuels

Based on Kennedy Space Center siting and logistics requirements and the nonfossil energy resources at the Center, a number of applicable technologies and system candidates for hydrogen production were identified and characterized. A two stage screening of these technologies in the light of specific criteria identified two leading candidates as nonfossil system approaches. Conceptual design and costing of two solar-operated, stand alone systems, one photovoltaic based on and the other involving the power tower approach reveals their technical feasibility as sited as KSC, and the potential for product cost competitiveness with conventional supply approaches in the 1990 to 1210 time period. Conventional water hydrolysis and hydrogen liquefaction subsystems are integrated with the solar subsystems

Geodesic and Path Motion in the Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory

We study the problem of test-particle motion in the Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory (NGT) assuming the four-velocity of the particle is parallel-transported along the trajectory. The predicted motion is studied on a static, spherically symmetric background field, with particular attention paid to radial and circular motions. Interestingly, it is found that the proper time taken to travel between any two non-zero radial positions is finite. It is also found that circular orbits can be supported at lower radii than in General Relativity for certain forms of motion. We present three interactions which could be used as alternate methods for coupling a test-particle to the antisymmetric components of the NGT field. One of these takes the form of a Yukawa force in the weak-field limit of a static, spherically symmetric field, which could lead to interesting phenomenology.Comment: 17 pages, REVTeX 3.0 with amssymb.st

CO2 and CH4 in sea ice from a subarctic fjord under influence of riverine input

We present the CH4 concentration [CH4], the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and the total gas content in bulk sea ice from subarctic, land-fast sea ice in the Kapisillit fjord, Greenland. Fjord systems are characterized by freshwater runoff and riverine input and based on dδ18O data, we show that > 30% of the surface water originated from periodic river input during ice growth. This resulted in fresher sea-ice layers with higher gas content than is typical from marine sea ice. The bulk ice [CH4] ranged from 1.8 to 12.1 nmol Lg-1, which corresponds to a partial pressure ranging from 3 to 28 ppmv. This is markedly higher than the average atmospheric methane content of 1.9 ppmv. Evidently most of the trapped methane within the ice was contained inside bubbles, and only a minor portion was dissolved in the brines. The bulk ice pCO2 ranged from 60 to 330 ppmv indicating that sea ice at temperatures above -4 °C is undersaturated compared to the atmosphere (390 ppmv). This study adds to the few existing studies of CH4 and CO2 in sea ice, and we conclude that subarctic seawater can be a sink for atmospheric CO2, while being a net source of CH4

Truly unentangled photon pairs without spectral filtering

We demonstrate that an integrated silicon microring resonator is capable of efficiently producing photon pairs that are completely unentangled; such pairs are a key component of heralded single photon sources. A dual-channel interferometric coupling scheme can be used to independently tune the quality factors associated with the pump and signal and idler modes, yielding a biphoton wavefunction with Schmidt number arbitrarily close to unity. This will permit the generation of heralded single photon states with unit purity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Localized state and charge transfer in nitrogen-doped graphene

Nitrogen-doped epitaxial graphene grown on SiC(000?1) was prepared by exposing the surface to an atomic nitrogen flux. Using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Spectroscopy (STS), supported by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, the simple substitution of carbon by nitrogen atoms has been identified as the most common doping configuration. High-resolution images reveal a reduction of local charge density on top of the nitrogen atoms, indicating a charge transfer to the neighboring carbon atoms. For the first time, local STS spectra clearly evidenced the energy levels associated with the chemical doping by nitrogen, localized in the conduction band. Various other nitrogen-related defects have been observed. The bias dependence of their topographic signatures demonstrates the presence of structural configurations more complex than substitution as well as hole-doping.Comment: 5 pages, accepted in PR

Sea ice <i>p</i>CO₂ dynamics and air-ice CO₂ fluxes during the Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic (SIMBA) experiment - Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica

Temporal evolution of pCO2 profiles in sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica, in October 2007 shows physical and thermodynamic processes controls the CO2 system in the ice. During the survey, cyclical warming and cooling strongly influenced the physical, chemical, and thermodynamic properties of the ice cover. Two sampling sites with contrasting characteristics of ice and snow thickness were sampled: one had little snow accumulation (from 8 to 25 cm) and larger temperature and salinity variations than the second site, where the snow cover was up to 38 cm thick and therefore better insulated the underlying sea ice. We show that each cooling/warming event was associated with an increase/decrease in the brine salinity, total alkalinity (TA), total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2), and in situ brine and bulk ice CO2 partial pressures (pCO2). Thicker snow covers reduced the amplitude of these changes: snow cover influences the sea ice carbonate system by modulating the temperature and therefore the salinity of the sea ice cover. Results indicate that pCO2 was undersaturated with respect to the atmosphere both in the in situ bulk ice (from 10 to 193 µatm) and brine (from 65 to 293 µatm), causing the sea ice to act as a sink for atmospheric CO2 (up to 2.9 mmol m-2 d-1), despite supersaturation of the underlying seawater (up to 462 µatm)