Eddy‐Induced Dispersion of Sea Ice Floes at the Marginal Ice Zone

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Mukund Gupta, Emma Gürcan, Andrew F. Thompson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2024
• Subjects: sea ice; oceanography; polar climate; eddies; submesoscale; heat transport; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL105656; https://doaj.org/article/ca7d782d4f2c45bd983ef86eb3a1cb5c

Abstract Ocean heat exchanges at the marginal ice zone (MIZ) play an important role in melting sea ice. Mixed‐layer eddies transport heat and ice floes across the MIZ, facilitating the pack's access to warm waters. This study explores these frontal dynamics using disk‐shaped floes coupled to an upper‐ocean model simulating the sea ice edge. Numerical experiments reveal that small floes respond more strongly to fine‐scale ocean currents, which favors higher dispersion rates and weakens sea ice drag onto the underlying ocean. Floes with radii smaller than resolved turbulent filaments (∼2–4 km) result in a wider and more energetic MIZ, by a factor of 70% each, compared to larger floes. We hypothesize that this floe size dependency may affect sea ice break‐up by controlling oceanic energy propagation into the MIZ and modulate the sea ice pack's melt rate by regulating lateral heat transport toward the sea ice cover.