McPhee M. Air-Ice-Ocean Interaction Turbulent ocean boundary layer exchange processes

Berlin: Springer, 2008. — 215 p.The outline of this monograph is based loosely on a series of lectures delivered to students enrolled in the air–sea–ice interaction course at the University Center in Svalbard. Both the lectures and the book are products of over three decades of trying (sometimes struggling) to distill from measurements at nearly two dozen ice-station projects of varying size and complexity, a somewhat cogent view of how the boundary layer that develops between sea ice and the underlying ocean behaves. While from many other perspectives, polar oceanographic research is always challenging, from the point of view expressed in this book, its overriding advantage is that sea ice provides a platform for making turbulence measurements that are extremely difficult elsewhere. In other words, it is a superb natural laboratory for studying planetary boundary layers throughout their whole extent. Still, it is a laboratory that demands much of its users, and for useful results, almost always requires hard work, plus a high degree of cooperation and perseverance among many scientists and support personnel. For me, this has been one of themost rewarding aspects of spending most of a scientific career devoted to high-latitude studies. Time and again, I have seen the harsh environment bring out the best of people in terms of inventiveness and all around competence. And the best is often very, very good. It would be a disservice to the many who have helped with the measurements, analysis, theory, and funding, to single out individuals for special thanks—it has always been a completely collaborative effort. The one exception is that I wish to thank my wife, Saundra, for her patience with the immediate task of my writing this book, for her occasional help with the field work, for maintaining a close-knit family duringmy frequent absences on remote projects, but mainly for always supporting and sharing my passion for the scientific endeavor.