Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast
The floe size distribution (FSD) is an important characteristics of sea ice, influencing several physical processes that take place in the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers under/over sea ice, as well as within sea ice itself. Through complex feedback loops involving those processes, FSD might...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e074b0bc5f4e4ab3a397ac1dc726cc68 2023-05-15T13:38:06+02:00 Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast Agnieszka Herman Marta Wenta Sukun Cheng 2021-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.655977 https://doaj.org/article/e074b0bc5f4e4ab3a397ac1dc726cc68 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2021.655977/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2021.655977 https://doaj.org/article/e074b0bc5f4e4ab3a397ac1dc726cc68 Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 9 (2021) sea ice floe size distribution sea ice breaking sea ice-waves interactions satellite imagery East Antarctic coast Science Q article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.655977 2022-12-31T16:24:17Z The floe size distribution (FSD) is an important characteristics of sea ice, influencing several physical processes that take place in the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers under/over sea ice, as well as within sea ice itself. Through complex feedback loops involving those processes, FSD might modify the short-term and seasonal evolution of the sea ice cover, and therefore significant effort is undertaken by the scientific community to better understand FSD-related effects and to include them in sea ice models. An important part of that effort is analyzing the FSD properties and variability in different ice and forcing conditions, based on airborne and satellite imagery. In this work we analyze a very high resolution (pixel size: 0.3 m) satellite image of sea ice from a location off the East Antarctic coast (65.6°S, 101.9°E), acquired on February 16, 2019. Contrary to most previous studies, the ice floes in the image have angular, polygonal shapes and a narrow size distribution. We show that the observed FSD can be represented as a weighted sum of two probability distributions, a Gaussian and a tapered power law, with the Gaussian part clearly dominating in the size range of floes that contribute over 90% to the total sea ice surface area. Based on an analysis of the weather, wave and ice conditions in the period preceding the day in question, we discuss the most probable scenarios that led to the breakup of landfast ice into floes visible in the image. Finally, theoretical arguments backed up by a series of numerical simulations of wave propagation in sea ice performed with a scattering model based on the Matched Eigenfunction Expansion Method are used to show that the observed dominating floe size in the three different regions of the image (18, 13 and 51 m, respectively) agree with those expected as a result of wave-induced breaking of landfast ice. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic Frontiers in Earth Science 9 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
sea ice floe size distribution sea ice breaking sea ice-waves interactions satellite imagery East Antarctic coast Science Q |
spellingShingle |
sea ice floe size distribution sea ice breaking sea ice-waves interactions satellite imagery East Antarctic coast Science Q Agnieszka Herman Marta Wenta Sukun Cheng Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
topic_facet |
sea ice floe size distribution sea ice breaking sea ice-waves interactions satellite imagery East Antarctic coast Science Q |
description |
The floe size distribution (FSD) is an important characteristics of sea ice, influencing several physical processes that take place in the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers under/over sea ice, as well as within sea ice itself. Through complex feedback loops involving those processes, FSD might modify the short-term and seasonal evolution of the sea ice cover, and therefore significant effort is undertaken by the scientific community to better understand FSD-related effects and to include them in sea ice models. An important part of that effort is analyzing the FSD properties and variability in different ice and forcing conditions, based on airborne and satellite imagery. In this work we analyze a very high resolution (pixel size: 0.3 m) satellite image of sea ice from a location off the East Antarctic coast (65.6°S, 101.9°E), acquired on February 16, 2019. Contrary to most previous studies, the ice floes in the image have angular, polygonal shapes and a narrow size distribution. We show that the observed FSD can be represented as a weighted sum of two probability distributions, a Gaussian and a tapered power law, with the Gaussian part clearly dominating in the size range of floes that contribute over 90% to the total sea ice surface area. Based on an analysis of the weather, wave and ice conditions in the period preceding the day in question, we discuss the most probable scenarios that led to the breakup of landfast ice into floes visible in the image. Finally, theoretical arguments backed up by a series of numerical simulations of wave propagation in sea ice performed with a scattering model based on the Matched Eigenfunction Expansion Method are used to show that the observed dominating floe size in the three different regions of the image (18, 13 and 51 m, respectively) agree with those expected as a result of wave-induced breaking of landfast ice. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Agnieszka Herman Marta Wenta Sukun Cheng |
author_facet |
Agnieszka Herman Marta Wenta Sukun Cheng |
author_sort |
Agnieszka Herman |
title |
Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
title_short |
Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
title_full |
Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
title_fullStr |
Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sizes and Shapes of Sea Ice Floes Broken by Waves–A Case Study From the East Antarctic Coast |
title_sort |
sizes and shapes of sea ice floes broken by waves–a case study from the east antarctic coast |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.655977 https://doaj.org/article/e074b0bc5f4e4ab3a397ac1dc726cc68 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 9 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2021.655977/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2021.655977 https://doaj.org/article/e074b0bc5f4e4ab3a397ac1dc726cc68 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.655977 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
9 |
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1766101493140684800 |