Roughness of Weddell Sea ice and estimates of the air-ice drag coefficient

Snow surface, ice surface, and ice underside roughness computed from 47 surface elevation profiles collected during a transect of the Weddell Sea are reported. Roughness spectra for all three surfaces and for both deformed and undeformed ice roll off roughly as k exp -1 when the wavenumber k is between 0.1 and 3 rad/m. The snow surface and underside spectra roll off somewhat faster than k exp -1, and the ice surface spectra roll off somewhat slower than k exp -1. It is argued that the excess spectral intensity at high wavenumbers in the Antarctic ice surface spectra results from the small-scale roughness that the ice sheet had on consolidation. The snow surface spectra are used to compute a roughness scale that parameterizes the air-ice momentum coupling and makes it possible to estimate the neutral stability drag coefficient referenced to a height of 10 m, C sub DN10. Typical C sub DN10 values are 1.1-1.4 x 10 exp -3 over undeformed ice and 1.3-1.8 x 10 exp -3 over deformed ice.