  Pound for pound, sea ice is the most important component of Earth's climate
system. The changing conditions in which sea ice forms and exists are likely to
affect the properties of sea ice itself, and potential climate feedbacks need
to be identified and understood to improve future projections. Here we perform
a set of idealised experiments which model sea ice growth under a range of
ambient salinities, freezing temperatures, and freezing orientations. The
results confirm existing theories; sea ice growth rate is largest for cooler
freezing temperatures, fresher ambient salinities, and bottom oriented freezing
configuration. Our primary metric of interest is the brine mass fraction (the
mass ratio of brine inclusions to the total sea ice), which we quantify and
determine the sensitivity of with respect to changes in freezing conditions. We
find that the brine mass fraction of our model sea ice is most sensitive to
freezing temperature, and increases 2.5% per 1oC increase of freezing
temperature. This finding suggests that future sea ice in warmer climate states
will retain more brine, with subsequent flow on effects for circulations driven
by brine rejection in the high-latitude oceans.
