Ice Lead Orientation Characteristics in the Winter Beaufort Sea

• Main Authors: Cunningham, G., Kwok, R., Banfield, J.
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Arctice Ocean sea ice ice cover lead ice Beaufort Sea Synthetic Aperture Radar SAR ice lead orientation; Beaufort Sea; ice pack; Sea ice; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2014/34391

The directional orientations of leads in the winter ice pack of the Beaufort Sea are studied both spatially and temporally. Data from the European Earth Resources Satellite-1 (ERS-1) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) was used. The SAR data was produced in image form at the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) with 100 x 100 m pixel resolution. The lead ice pixels, which included all non-multiyear ice, were defined using a simple thresholding of the radar backscatter values. The orientations of the leads covering the Beaufort Sea during the period of January through March of 1992 were derived using a lead skeletonization technique. Results show a strong temporal persistence in the distribution and orientation of the leads during this period.