Characterizing the size and shape of sea ice floes

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Gherardi, Marco, Cosentino Lagomarsino, Marco
• Other Authors: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca = University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano (INFN), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative = Laboratory of Computational and Quantitative Biology (LCQB), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (IBPS), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Cryospheric science; Statistical physics thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01223262; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01223262/document; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01223262/file/srep10226.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/srep10226

International audience Monitoring drift ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions directly and by remote sensing is important for the study of climate, but a unified modeling framework is lacking. Hence, interpretation of the data, as well as the decision of what to measure, represent a challenge for different fields of science. To address this point, we analyzed, using statistical physics tools, satellite images of sea ice from four different locations in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and measured the size and the elongation of ice floes (floating pieces of ice). We find that (i) floe size follows a distribution that can be characterized with good approximation by a single length scale , which we discuss in the framework of stochastic fragmentation models, and (ii) the deviation of their shape from circularity is reproduced with remarkable precision by a geometric model of coalescence by freezing, based on random Voronoi tessellations, with a single free parameter expressing the shape disorder. Although the physical interpretations remain open, this advocates the parameters and as two independent indicators of the environment in the polar regions, which are easily accessible by remote sensing.