TEMPERATURE PROFILE IN ARCTIC FLOES.

The problem of the unsteady temperature distribution in floating ice field is considered in some detail. The nonlinear heat diffusion equation is solved by applying a perturbation method to give a closed form solution for the mean temperature throughout the ice sheet. This solution takes into account the dependency of the ice thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity on both temperature and salinity, the effect of the short-wave radiation passing through the upper interface, the detailed temporal temperature variation at the ice-snow interface and the effect of the ice sheet thickness. The first-order solution considers the nonlinear steady state problem whereas the second-order solution considers a linearized non-steady problem.