On the uncertainty of sea-ice isostasy

Publisher's PDF During late winter 2007, coincident measurements of sea ice were collected using various sensors at an ice camp in the Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic. Analysis of the archived data provides new insight into sea-ice isostasy and its related R-factor through case studies at three s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Geiger, Cathleen A., Wadhams, Peter, Müller, Hans-Reinhard, Richter-Menge, Jacqueline A., Samluk, Jesse P., DeLiberty, Tracy L., Corradina, Victoria
Other Authors: Cathleen GEIGER, Peter WADHAMS, Hans-Reinhard MÜLLER, Jacqueline RICHTER-MENGE, Jesse SAMLUK, Tracy DELIBERTY, Victoria CORRADINA1
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: International Glaciological Society 2015
Subjects:
Annals of Glaciology
Arctic
Beaufort Sea
Sea ice
Online Access:http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/17346
https://doi.org/10.3189/2015AoG69A633
Description
Summary:Publisher's PDF During late winter 2007, coincident measurements of sea ice were collected using various sensors at an ice camp in the Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic. Analysis of the archived data provides new insight into sea-ice isostasy and its related R-factor through case studies at three scales using different combinations of snow and ice thickness components. At the smallest scale (<1 m; point scale), isostasy is not expected, so we calculate a residual and define this as ????��� (‘zjey’) to describe vertical displacement due to deformation. From 1 to 10m length scales, we explore traditional isostasy and identify a specific sequence of thickness calculations which minimize freeboard and elevation uncertainty. An effective solution exists when the R-factor is allowed to vary: ranging from 2 to 12, with mean of 5.17, mode of 5.88 and skewed distribution. At regional scales, underwater, airborne and spaceborne platforms are always missing thickness variables from either above or below sea level. For such situations, realistic agreement is found by applying small-scale skewed ranges for the R-factor. These findings encourage a broader isostasy solution as a function of potential energy and length scale. Overall, results add insight to data collection strategies and metadata characteristics of different thickness products. University of Delaware. Department of Geography. University of Delaware. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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