Multi-year ice thickness: knowns and unknowns

• Main Authors: Johnston, M., Masterson, D., Wright, B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; sverdrup basin
• Online Access: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=15b81ab8-4582-4272-9f8c-ff99f9c09cba; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=15b81ab8-4582-4272-9f8c-ff99f9c09cba; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=15b81ab8-4582-4272-9f8c-ff99f9c09cba

Nearly 5000 direct measurements of multi-year ice thickness, compiled from studies spanning a period of 51 years, are used to identify some of the “knowns and unknowns” surrounding multiyear ice. Many of these studies reside in the grey literature, which makes this paper one the few in the open literature to include data from these not-often-seen reports. Individual thickness measurements on multi-year ice suggest that floes from the Beaufort, Central Canadian Arctic, High Arctic and Sverdrup Basin are of comparable thickness. The thickest multi-year ice, 40.2 m, was measured on a pressure ridge in the Canadian Beaufort. On average, the mean thickness is 5.6 m (±2.2 m) for a relatively level multi-year floe and 9.9 m (±4.7 m) for a pressure ridge. Floes with a mean thicknesses of 11.3 m, and pressure ridges with a mean thickness of 24.7 m have been measured, however. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes