Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast
Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2017-06 The record minimum in the extent of drifting sea ice on the Arctic Ocean was set in 2012, and the ten lowest retreats of summer sea ice were observed in the last decade. In this thesis we investigate whether there have been corresponding chan...
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ftunivwashington:oai:digital.lib.washington.edu:1773/40281 2023-05-15T15:03:52+02:00 Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast Bell, Caroline Bladen Rigor, Ignatius 2017-06 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1773/40281 en_US eng Bell_washington_0250O_17283.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1773/40281 none Alaska Arctic Beaufort Sea Landfast Ice Sea Ice Physical oceanography Oceanography Thesis 2017 ftunivwashington 2023-03-12T18:57:48Z Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2017-06 The record minimum in the extent of drifting sea ice on the Arctic Ocean was set in 2012, and the ten lowest retreats of summer sea ice were observed in the last decade. In this thesis we investigate whether there have been corresponding changes in the breakup of landfast sea ice using records from GPS buoys deployed on landfast sea ice in the Beaufort Sea region of Alaska between 2007 and 2015 to analyze the timing and cause of the breakup of landfast ice. Between two and five buoys were deployed each winter on stable landfast sea ice in two regions, Camden Bay and Harrison Bay, along the Alaskan Beaufort Coast. In addition to determining the start of landfast ice breakup, we used local surface winds, air temperature, water level, and air pressure data to examine the forces affecting breakup timing. Past studies have shown breakup is caused either by mechanical forcing from wind, currents or tides, or by thermal forcing due to above-freezing temperatures that cause ice to melt and drift away from the shore. We found the average regional timing of breakup to start on June 6 for the 2007 through 2015 breakup seasons. This date follows the trend of an earlier breakup of landfast in this region, as it is five days earlier than observations from the 1990s to early 2000s and 24 days earlier than those from the 1970s. Although the earlier breakup trend is not statistically significant it does show continued changing conditions in the Beaufort Sea landfast ice regime. Exploring the processes affecting landfast ice breakup in our two sub-regions reveals landfast ice in Camden Bay beginning to break free on average on May 27 and in Harrison Bay on June 29. The large difference in breakup timing between the eastern and western Beaufort Sea coast can be attributed to different processes affecting the breakup. In Harrison Bay, break up was classified as thermally driven in all years. However, in Camden Bay break up was classified as mechanically forced in five out of ... Thesis Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice Alaska University of Washington, Seattle: ResearchWorks Arctic Arctic Ocean |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Washington, Seattle: ResearchWorks |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwashington |
language |
English |
topic |
Alaska Arctic Beaufort Sea Landfast Ice Sea Ice Physical oceanography Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Alaska Arctic Beaufort Sea Landfast Ice Sea Ice Physical oceanography Oceanography Bell, Caroline Bladen Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
topic_facet |
Alaska Arctic Beaufort Sea Landfast Ice Sea Ice Physical oceanography Oceanography |
description |
Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2017-06 The record minimum in the extent of drifting sea ice on the Arctic Ocean was set in 2012, and the ten lowest retreats of summer sea ice were observed in the last decade. In this thesis we investigate whether there have been corresponding changes in the breakup of landfast sea ice using records from GPS buoys deployed on landfast sea ice in the Beaufort Sea region of Alaska between 2007 and 2015 to analyze the timing and cause of the breakup of landfast ice. Between two and five buoys were deployed each winter on stable landfast sea ice in two regions, Camden Bay and Harrison Bay, along the Alaskan Beaufort Coast. In addition to determining the start of landfast ice breakup, we used local surface winds, air temperature, water level, and air pressure data to examine the forces affecting breakup timing. Past studies have shown breakup is caused either by mechanical forcing from wind, currents or tides, or by thermal forcing due to above-freezing temperatures that cause ice to melt and drift away from the shore. We found the average regional timing of breakup to start on June 6 for the 2007 through 2015 breakup seasons. This date follows the trend of an earlier breakup of landfast in this region, as it is five days earlier than observations from the 1990s to early 2000s and 24 days earlier than those from the 1970s. Although the earlier breakup trend is not statistically significant it does show continued changing conditions in the Beaufort Sea landfast ice regime. Exploring the processes affecting landfast ice breakup in our two sub-regions reveals landfast ice in Camden Bay beginning to break free on average on May 27 and in Harrison Bay on June 29. The large difference in breakup timing between the eastern and western Beaufort Sea coast can be attributed to different processes affecting the breakup. In Harrison Bay, break up was classified as thermally driven in all years. However, in Camden Bay break up was classified as mechanically forced in five out of ... |
author2 |
Rigor, Ignatius |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Bell, Caroline Bladen |
author_facet |
Bell, Caroline Bladen |
author_sort |
Bell, Caroline Bladen |
title |
Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
title_short |
Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
title_full |
Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
title_fullStr |
Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landfast Ice Breakup Timing and Processes Along the Alaska Beaufort Sea Coast |
title_sort |
landfast ice breakup timing and processes along the alaska beaufort sea coast |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1773/40281 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Sea ice Alaska |
op_relation |
Bell_washington_0250O_17283.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1773/40281 |
op_rights |
none |
_version_ |
1766335708576874496 |