Seasonal Ice Mass-Balance Buoys: Adapting Tools to the Changing Arctic

Monitoring the local mass balance of Arctic sea ice provides opportunities to attribute the observed changes in a particular floe's mass balance to specific forcing phenomena. A shift from multiyear to seasonal ice in large portions of the Arctic presents a challenge for the existing Lagrangian...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Polashenski, Chris, Perovich, Don, Richter-Menge, Jackie, Elder, Bruce
Other Authors: ENGINEER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER HANOVER NH COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Meteorology
Fluid Mechanics
Mechanics
Thermodynamics
*ARCTIC REGIONS
*ICE FORMATION
BALANCE
ARCTIC OCEAN
OPEN WATER
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTIONS
BUOYS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
MASS
SEA ICE
FLOES
MASS BALANCE
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Sea ice
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA532414
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA532414
Description
Summary:Monitoring the local mass balance of Arctic sea ice provides opportunities to attribute the observed changes in a particular floe's mass balance to specific forcing phenomena. A shift from multiyear to seasonal ice in large portions of the Arctic presents a challenge for the existing Lagrangian array of autonomous ice mass-balance buoys, which were designed with a perennial ice cover in mind. This work identifies the anticipated challenges of operation in seasonal ice and presents a new autonomous buoy designed to monitor ice mass balance in the seasonal ice zone. The new design presented incorporates features which allow the buoy to operate in thin ice and open water, and reduce its vulnerability to ice dynamics and wildlife damage, while enhancing ease of deployment. A test deployment undertaken from April to June 2009 is discussed and results are presented with analysis to illustrate both the features and limitations of the buoy;s abilities. Published in the Annals of Glaciology, v52 n57 p18-26, 2011. Prepared in collaboration with Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. Sponsored in part by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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