Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea
Breakup of the near-continuous winter sea ice into discrete summer ice floes is an important transition that dictates the evolution and fate of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Arctic Ocean. During the winter of 2014, more than 50 autonomous drifting buoys were deployed in four separate clusters o...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b3b82a81daf54f76abdea399f9672168 2023-05-15T14:56:54+02:00 Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea Byongjun Hwang Jeremy Wilkinson Edward Maksym Hans C. Graber Axel Schweiger Christopher Horvat Donald K. Perovich Alexandra E. Arntsen Timothy P. Stanton Jinchang Ren Peter Wadhams 2017-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.232 https://doaj.org/article/b3b82a81daf54f76abdea399f9672168 EN eng BioOne https://www.elementascience.org/articles/232 https://doaj.org/toc/2325-1026 2325-1026 doi:10.1525/elementa.232 https://doaj.org/article/b3b82a81daf54f76abdea399f9672168 Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, Vol 5 (2017) sea ice breakup floe size distribution marginal ice zone Arctic Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.232 2022-12-31T00:12:21Z Breakup of the near-continuous winter sea ice into discrete summer ice floes is an important transition that dictates the evolution and fate of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Arctic Ocean. During the winter of 2014, more than 50 autonomous drifting buoys were deployed in four separate clusters on the sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, as part of the Office of Naval Research MIZ program. These systems measured the ocean-ice-atmosphere properties at their location whilst the sea ice parameters in the surrounding area of these buoy clusters were continuously monitored by satellite TerraSAR-X Synthetic Aperture Radar. This approach provided a unique Lagrangian view of the winter-to-summer transition of sea ice breakup and floe size distribution at each cluster between March and August. The results show the critical timings of a) temporary breakup of winter sea ice coinciding with strong wind events and b) spring breakup (during surface melt, melt ponding and drainage) leading to distinctive summer ice floes. Importantly our results suggest that summer sea ice floe distribution is potentially affected by the state of winter sea ice, including the composition and fracturing (caused by deformation events) of winter sea ice, and that substantial mid-summer breakup of sea ice floes is likely linked to the timing of thermodynamic melt of sea ice in the area. As the rate of deformation and thermodynamic melt of sea ice has been increasing in the MIZ in the Beaufort Sea, our results suggest that these elevated factors would promote faster and more enhanced breakup of sea ice, leading to a higher melt rate of sea ice and thus a more rapid advance of the summer MIZ. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Arctic Ocean Elem Sci Anth 5 0 40 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
sea ice breakup floe size distribution marginal ice zone Arctic Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
sea ice breakup floe size distribution marginal ice zone Arctic Environmental sciences GE1-350 Byongjun Hwang Jeremy Wilkinson Edward Maksym Hans C. Graber Axel Schweiger Christopher Horvat Donald K. Perovich Alexandra E. Arntsen Timothy P. Stanton Jinchang Ren Peter Wadhams Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
topic_facet |
sea ice breakup floe size distribution marginal ice zone Arctic Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Breakup of the near-continuous winter sea ice into discrete summer ice floes is an important transition that dictates the evolution and fate of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Arctic Ocean. During the winter of 2014, more than 50 autonomous drifting buoys were deployed in four separate clusters on the sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, as part of the Office of Naval Research MIZ program. These systems measured the ocean-ice-atmosphere properties at their location whilst the sea ice parameters in the surrounding area of these buoy clusters were continuously monitored by satellite TerraSAR-X Synthetic Aperture Radar. This approach provided a unique Lagrangian view of the winter-to-summer transition of sea ice breakup and floe size distribution at each cluster between March and August. The results show the critical timings of a) temporary breakup of winter sea ice coinciding with strong wind events and b) spring breakup (during surface melt, melt ponding and drainage) leading to distinctive summer ice floes. Importantly our results suggest that summer sea ice floe distribution is potentially affected by the state of winter sea ice, including the composition and fracturing (caused by deformation events) of winter sea ice, and that substantial mid-summer breakup of sea ice floes is likely linked to the timing of thermodynamic melt of sea ice in the area. As the rate of deformation and thermodynamic melt of sea ice has been increasing in the MIZ in the Beaufort Sea, our results suggest that these elevated factors would promote faster and more enhanced breakup of sea ice, leading to a higher melt rate of sea ice and thus a more rapid advance of the summer MIZ. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Byongjun Hwang Jeremy Wilkinson Edward Maksym Hans C. Graber Axel Schweiger Christopher Horvat Donald K. Perovich Alexandra E. Arntsen Timothy P. Stanton Jinchang Ren Peter Wadhams |
author_facet |
Byongjun Hwang Jeremy Wilkinson Edward Maksym Hans C. Graber Axel Schweiger Christopher Horvat Donald K. Perovich Alexandra E. Arntsen Timothy P. Stanton Jinchang Ren Peter Wadhams |
author_sort |
Byongjun Hwang |
title |
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
title_short |
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
title_full |
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
title_fullStr |
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea |
title_sort |
winter-to-summer transition of arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the beaufort sea |
publisher |
BioOne |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.232 https://doaj.org/article/b3b82a81daf54f76abdea399f9672168 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice |
op_source |
Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, Vol 5 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://www.elementascience.org/articles/232 https://doaj.org/toc/2325-1026 2325-1026 doi:10.1525/elementa.232 https://doaj.org/article/b3b82a81daf54f76abdea399f9672168 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.232 |
container_title |
Elem Sci Anth |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
0 |
container_start_page |
40 |
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1766328958031233024 |