On the calculation of the roughness parameter of sea ice

Abstract

A method is described for calculating the roughness parameter Z0 of sea ice from velocity profiles. Instead of the conventional procedure of determining an individual Z0 for each observed velocity profile, this method uses a number of profiles to find a single value for Z0. By means of a set of data obtained in the Arctic it is shown that the method greatly reduces the scatter in Z0 and produces consistent values for the friction velocity u*.