M.J. McGuinness 
,
K.A. Landman 
, H.J. Trodahl 
,
A.E. Pantoja
School of Mathematical and Computing
Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Melbourne
School of Chemical and
Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Temperature measurements taken in young landfast
Antarctic sea ice show daily oscillations consistent with heating by
solar radiation. We present and solve a heat conduction model for
the temperature
with a nonlinear thermal capacity and a distributed source term for
solar power absorption based on Monte Carlo scattering simulations of
penetrating photons. We observe two characteristic modes for solar
heating in sea ice, one dominated by travelling thermal waves or
conduction in the upper half, and the other dominated by in-place
solar heating in the lower half. We note that deep thermal responses
to solar radiation are larger by a factor of 
10 than predicted
by scattering measurements, due possibly to the presence of algae
and/or dissolved organic material.