Characterization of summer Arctic sea ice morphology in the 135 -175 W sector using multi-scale methods

• Published in: Cold Regions Science and Technology
• Main Authors: Lei, R, Tian-Kunze, X, Li, B, Heil, P, Wang, J, Zeng, J, Tian, Z
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Science Bv 2017
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Glaciology; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Arctic Archipelago; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2016.10.009; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/113763

In summer 2014, sea ice morphological characteristics were investigated in the 135175W sector of the Arctic Ocean using in situ, shipborne, and remote sensing measurements. Sea ice in this sector was deformed and compact compared to previous observations. The average ice area in the region (7082.5N, 135175W) was 7.610 5 km 2 for 29 July through 6 September 2014, the fourth largest record between 2003 and 2014. This can be attributed to the enhanced multiyear sea ice inflow from north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from September 2013 to August 2014. Multiyear ice coverage in the study region on 30 April 2014 was 55%, which was larger than the values in 20052013. During the melt season of 2014, the Arctic Dipole had a positive anomaly, associated with enhanced southerly wind. In summer 2014 the marginal ice zone exhibited a distinct ice retreat, whereas the pack ice zone (PIZ) showed strong persistence due to the large coverage of multiyear ice. The northward retreat of the PIZ boundary was <100km from late July through early September 2014. In the PIZ of 7680.5N, average ice thickness weighted by ice concentration, obtained by shipborne measurements in August 2014 was 0.54m thicker than that obtained in August 2010 due to enhanced ice deformation and less open waters in 2014. At 81N, sea ice with modal thickness of 1.48m reached thermodynamic balance by late August 2014, which was much earlier than that in 2010.