Ice prediction system developed to facilitate Antarctic expedition

Chinese researchers have developed a forecast system for land-fast ice in east Antarctica's Prydz Bay, offering help for expeditions in the area, reported Xinhua.

Near the Prydz Bay, where China's Zhongshan Station is located, the coast is covered by land-fast ice throughout the year, thus posing a safety risk to ships and unloading operations. Therefore, technical means to obtain the thickness of large Antarctic sea ice are needed.

Developed by a team led by the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, the new system combines satellite remote sensing data and numerical simulation to obtain dynamic changes in the growth, fragmentation, and range of land-fast ice. Through simulation, it can predict the thickness of ice and snow, ice surface melt as well as the area of internal ice melt in the subsequent 10 days.

The system has been applied during China's 34th, 35th, and 36th Antarctic expeditions.

The study of this system has been published in the journal "Annals of Glaciology."