| Summary: | Includes Supplementary Material A study of the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) in the Central Arctic was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 2014. This experiment used clusters of buoys equipped with autonomous sensors. As the 2014 arctic season progressed, the buoy GPS locations were collected to produce estimates of local divergence of the ice field, and a resulting measurement of equivalent Open Water Fraction (eOWF). In this research, changes in eOWF within the MIZ were compared with local two-dimensional 10 m wind fields extracted from the local European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis wind products. A cross-correlation analysis between the mean field surface stresses (wind stress, divergence, and curl) and eOWF ice divergence was conducted along the buoy GPS tracks using a Lagrangian sampling method. OWF from the NASA Team Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSMI) satellite measurements algorithm was compared with the eOWF ice divergence calculation method. Results revealed that wind stress goes through a relaxation period of about one day prior to large eOWF changes. For convergent events starting with high eOWF, changes are seen < 24 hours after a relaxation period. A strong cross correlation between eOWF and wind stress was confirmed with mean r-values of 0.91 and 0.89 across two clusters of buoy data. Timelag between the maximum wind stress and the point of lowest wind stress when eOWF rate of change is highest is about 60 hours. Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy
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