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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Ice Generation and the Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena of Introducing Water to a Cold Bath of Brine
Published on: March 13, 2017
Empirical formula for the refractive index of freezing brine
1Department of Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, DTU-Building 321, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark. jrf@imm.dtu.dk
Abstract:
The refractive index of freezing brine is important in order to, for example, estimate oceanic scattering as sea ice develops. Previously, no simple continuous expression was available for estimating the refractive index of brine at subzero temperatures. I show that extrapolation of the empirical formula for the refractive index of seawater by Quan and Fry [Appl. Opt.34, 3477 (1995)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.34.003477] provides a good fit to the refractive index of freezing brine for temperatures above -24 degrees C and salinities below 180 per thousand.
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