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© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Tison, J.-L., Maksym, T., Fraser, A. D., Corkill, M., Kimura, N., Nosaka, Y., Nomura, D., Vancoppenolle, M., Ackley, S., Stammerjohn, S., Wauthy, S., Van der Linden, F., Carnat, G., Sapart, C., de Jong, J., Fripiat, F., & Delille, B. Physical and biological properties of early winter Antarctic sea ice in the Ross Sea. Annals of Glaciology, 61(83), (2020): 241–259, https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.43., This work presents the results of physical and biological investigations at 27 biogeochemical stations of early winter sea ice in the Ross Sea during the 2017 PIPERS cruise. Only two similar cruises occurred in the past, in 1995 and 1998. The year 2017 was a specific year, in that ice growth in the Central Ross Sea was considerably delayed, compared to previous years. These conditions resulted in lower ice thicknesses and Chl-a burdens, as compared to those observed during the previous cruises. It also resulted in a different structure of the sympagic algal community, unusually dominated by Phaeocystis rather than diatoms. Compared to autumn-winter sea ice in the Weddell Sea (AWECS cruise), the 2017 Ross Sea pack ice displayed similar thickness distribution, but much lower snow cover and therefore nearly no flooding conditions. It is shown that contrasted dynamics of autumnal-winter sea-ice growth between the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea impacted the development of the sympagic community. Mean/median ice Chl-a concentrations were 3–5 times lower at PIPERS, and the community status there appeared to be more mature (decaying?), based on Phaeopigments/Chl-a ratios. These contrasts are discussed in the light of temporal and spatial differences between the two cruises., S. Stammerjohn was supported by the PIPERS and LTER Programs of the U.S. National Science Foundation, ANT-1341606 (S. Stammerjohn and J. Cassano, U Colorado) and ANT-0823101 (H. Ducklow, LDEO/Columbia University), respectively. Steve Ackley (UTSA) was supported by the PIPERS program of the U.S. National Science Foundation ANT-1341717 and by NASA Grant 80NSSC19M0194 to the Center for Adv. Meas. in Extreme Environments at UTSA.Ted Maksym (WHOI) was supported by the PIPERS program of the U.S. National Science Foundation ANT-1341513. This research was supported by the Belgian F.R.S-FNRS (project ISOGGAP and IODIne, contract T.0268.16 and J.0262.17, respectively). Fanny Van der Linden, Sarah Wauthy, Gauthier Carnat, Célia Sapart and Bruno Delille are PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and research associate, respectively, of the Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS. This work was also supported by the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centre program through the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, and by the Australian Research Council's Special Research Initiative for Antarctic Gateway Partnership (Project ID SR140300001). Daiki Nomura was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (#17H04715) and the National Institute for Polar Research through Project Research KP-303 (ROBOTICA) and #28-14.

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ackley, S. F., Perovich, D. K., Maksym, T., Weissling, B., & Xie, H. Surface flooding of Antarctic summer sea ice. Annals of Glaciology, 61(82), (2020): 117-126, doi:10.1017/aog.2020.22., The surface flooding of Antarctic sea ice in summer covers 50% or more of the sea-ice area in the major summer ice packs, the western Weddell and the Bellingshausen-Amundsen Seas. Two CRREL ice mass-balance buoys were deployed on the Amundsen Sea pack in late December 2010 from the icebreaker Oden, bridging the summer period (January–February 2011). Temperature records from thermistors embedded vertically in the snow and ice showed progressive increases in the depth of the flooded layer (up to 0.3–0.35 m) on the ice cover during January and February. While the snow depth was relatively unchanged from accumulation (<10 cm), ice thickness decreased by up to a meter from bottom melting during this period. Contemporaneous with the high bottom melting, under-ice water temperatures up to 1°C above the freezing point were found. The high temperature arises from solar heating of the upper mixed layer which can occur when ice concentration in the local area falls and lower albedo ocean water is exposed to radiative heating. The higher proportion of snow ice found in the Amundsen Sea pack ice therefore results from both winter snowfall and summer ice bottom melt found here that can lead to extensive surface flooding., This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grant to UTSA, ANT-0839053-Sea Ice System in Antarctic Summer (S.F. Ackley, H. Xie and B. Weissling), and to WHOI, ANT-1341513 (T. Maksym), and by the NASA Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments or NASA-CAMEE at UTSA, NASA #80NSSC19M0194 (S.F. Ackley, H. Xie, B.Weissling).

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ackley, S. F., Stammerjohn, S., Maksym, T., Smith, M., Cassano, J., Guest, P., Tison, J., Delille, B., Loose, B., Sedwick, P., DePace, L., Roach, L., & Parno, J. Sea-ice production and air/ice/ocean/biogeochemistry interactions in the Ross Sea during the PIPERS 2017 autumn field campaign. Annals of Glaciology, 61(82), (2020): 181-195, doi:10.1017/aog.2020.31., The Ross Sea is known for showing the greatest sea-ice increase, as observed globally, particularly from 1979 to 2015. However, corresponding changes in sea-ice thickness and production in the Ross Sea are not known, nor how these changes have impacted water masses, carbon fluxes, biogeochemical processes and availability of micronutrients. The PIPERS project sought to address these questions during an autumn ship campaign in 2017 and two spring airborne campaigns in 2016 and 2017. PIPERS used a multidisciplinary approach of manned and autonomous platforms to study the coupled air/ice/ocean/biogeochemical interactions during autumn and related those to spring conditions. Unexpectedly, the Ross Sea experienced record low sea ice in spring 2016 and autumn 2017. The delayed ice advance in 2017 contributed to (1) increased ice production and export in coastal polynyas, (2) thinner snow and ice cover in the central pack, (3) lower sea-ice Chl-a burdens and differences in sympagic communities, (4) sustained ocean heat flux delaying ice thickening and (5) a melting, anomalously southward ice edge persisting into winter. Despite these impacts, airborne observations in spring 2017 suggest that winter ice production over the continental shelf was likely not anomalous., NSF supported PIPERS award numbers: ANT-1341717 (S.F. Ackley, UTSA); ANT-1341513 (E. Maksym, WHOI); ANT-1341606 (S. Stammerjohn and J. Cassano, U Colorado); ANT-1341725 (P. Guest, NPS). P. Sedwick was supported by NSF ANT-1543483. S.F. Ackley was also supported by NASA Grant 80NSSC19M0194 to the Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments at UTSA. S. Stammerjohn was also supported by the LTER Program under NFS award number ANT-0823101 (H. Ducklow, LDEO/Columbia University). Additional support was by the Belgian F.R.S-FNRS (project ISOGGAP and IODIne, contract T.0268.16 and J.0262.17, respectively). Bruno Delille is a research associate of the F.R.S.-FNRS. Terra-Sar-X quicklook imagery was coordinated by Kathrin Hoeppner at DLR, and Andy Archer (with the Antarctic Support Contractor) provided selected (cloud-free) MODIS scenes and daily maps of AMSR2 sea-ice concentration.