Arctic sea ice trafficability: new strategies for a changing icescape

• Main Author: Dammann, Dyre Oliver
• Other Authors: Eicken, Hajo, Mahoney, Andrew R., Meyer, Franz J., Bhatt, Uma S., Meek, Chanda L.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Ice crossings; Arctic Ocean; Alaska; Sea ice; Ice mechanics; Arctic; Fairbanks; Nome
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/7871

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017 Sea ice is an important part of the Arctic social-environmental system, in part because it provides a platform for human transportation and for marine flora and fauna that use the ice as a habitat. Sea ice loss projected for coming decades is expected to change ice conditions throughout the Arctic, but little is known about the nature and extent of anticipated changes and in particular potential implications for over-ice travel and ice use as a platform. This question has been addressed here through an extensive effort to link sea ice use and key geophysical properties of sea ice, drawing upon extensive field surveys around on-ice operations and local and Indigenous knowledge for the widely different ice uses and ice regimes of Utqiaġvik, Kotzebue, and Nome, Alaska. A set of nine parameters that constrain landfast sea ice use has been derived, including spatial extent, stability, and timing and persistence of landfast ice. This work lays the foundation for a framework to assess and monitor key ice-parameters relevant in the context of ice-use feasibility, safety, and efficiency, drawing on different remote-sensing techniques. The framework outlines the steps necessary to further evaluate relevant parameters in the context of user objectives and key stakeholder needs for a given ice regime and ice use scenario. I have utilized this framework in case studies for three different ice regimes, where I find uses to be constrained by ice thickness, roughness, and fracture potential and develop assessment strategies with accuracy at the relevant spatial scales. In response to the widely reported importance of high-confidence ice thickness measurements, I have developed a new strategy to estimate appropriate thickness compensation factors. Compensation factors have the potential to reduce risk of misrepresenting areas of thin ice when using point-based in-situ assessment methods along a particular route. This approach was tested on an ice road near Kotzebue, ...