The Research and Application of the Electric Capacitor Detecting Sea Ice Thickness and its Detecting System

This paper introduced a type of automate monitor sea-ice thickness sensor and its system .With some sampling sea water used as the medium of the metal parallel plate capacitor, the capacity of the parallel plate capacitor will be changed significantly in the freezing process from sea water into sea ice (or from solid into liquid). Based on the different characteristics of the capacitor in the different mediums such as in the air, sea water and sea ice, the contacting sensor used for detecting the thickness of sea ice layers and the water level under sea ice, and the sensor detection system, are designed respectively. Experiments prove that this method of monitoring the sea-ice thickness is an advanced.The paper also describes the application of the system to the investigation of the Antarctic sea ice.