Home▸Underwater & Ocean▸Under-Ice CTD Ocean Profiler (2D)

Under-Ice CTD Ocean Profiler (2D)

A 2D CTD-probe lab: descend a sensor through an Arctic borehole and watch depth-resolved temperature, salinity, density and sound-speed profiles build in real time from the Mackenzie sound-speed equation and a linear seawater freezing-point model.

Underwater & Ocean2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion turns "under-ice observatory" into a working CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) instrument: a probe descends through a modelled Arctic water column while temperature, salinity, density and sound speed are computed at every depth from real oceanographic relationships — an exponential halocline/thermocline transition, a linear seawater freezing-point formula that pins the surface reading to the ice-water interface, and the Mackenzie (1981) sound-speed equation — so the readout panel and the live profile chart reflect the actual physics of a polar water column rather than a decorative scene.

⚙ Under the hood

2D CTD-probe lab: descend a sensor through an Arctic borehole and watch depth-resolved temperature, salinity, density and sound-speed profiles build live from real oceanographic formulas.

CTD probehaloclinethermoclineseawater densitysound speedpolar oceanography

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

Why does the surface water sit right at the freezing point?

Water in direct contact with sea ice cannot be colder than its local freezing point, which depends on salinity (roughly T_f ≈ −0.054 × salinity). The probe's surface reading always equals that value for the salinity you set.

What is the halocline the mixed-layer slider controls?

In the Arctic Ocean a shallow, cold, fresh meltwater layer sits above warmer, saltier Atlantic-derived water. The transition zone where salinity and temperature climb toward their deep values is the halocline/thermocline; the slider sets how many metres that transition spans.

How is the sound-speed number computed?

It uses the Mackenzie (1981) empirical sound-speed equation, a standard oceanographic formula that takes temperature, salinity and depth and is valid across the polar water conditions modelled here.