Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea
Winter-to-summer transition of Arctic sea ice breakup and floe size distribution in the Beaufort Sea
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DOI：
10.1525/elementa.232
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发表时间：
2017-07-26
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Wadhams, Peter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hwang, Byongjun;Wilkinson, Jeremy;Wadhams, Peter
近连续的冬季海冰分解成离散的夏季浮冰是一个重要的过渡，决定了北冰洋边缘冰区（MIZ）的演变和命运。2014年冬季，作为海军研究办公室MIZ计划的一部分，在博福特海的海冰上部署了50多个自主漂流浮标。这些系统测量其所在位置的海洋-冰-大气特性，同时由TerraSAR-X合成孔径雷达卫星持续监测这些浮标群周围地区的海冰参数。这种方法提供了一个独特的拉格朗日视图的冬季到夏季过渡的海冰破裂和浮冰大小分布在每个集群之间的3月和8月。结果表明，关键的时间a）冬季海冰的暂时破裂与强风事件和B）春季破裂（在表面融化，融化积水和排水）导致独特的夏季浮冰。重要的是，我们的研究结果表明，夏季海冰浮冰分布可能受到冬季海冰状态的影响，包括冬季海冰的组成和断裂（由变形事件引起），并且夏季中期海冰浮冰的大量解体可能与该地区海冰热力学融化的时间有关。随着博福特海混合带海冰的变形和热力学融化速率的增加，我们的研究结果表明，这些升高的因素将促进更快和更强的海冰破碎，导致更高的海冰融化速率，从而更快地推进夏季混合带。
Breakup of the near-continuous winter sea ice into discrete summer ice floes is an important transition that dictates the evolution and fate of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Arctic Ocean. During the winter of 2014, more than 50 autonomous drifting buoys were deployed in four separate clusters on the sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, as part of the Office of Naval Research MIZ program. These systems measured the ocean-ice-atmosphere properties at their location whilst the sea ice parameters in the surrounding area of these buoy clusters were continuously monitored by satellite TerraSAR-X Synthetic Aperture Radar. This approach provided a unique Lagrangian view of the winter-to-summer transition of sea ice breakup and floe size distribution at each cluster between March and August. The results show the critical timings of a) temporary breakup of winter sea ice coinciding with strong wind events and b) spring breakup (during surface melt, melt ponding and drainage) leading to distinctive summer ice floes. Importantly our results suggest that summer sea ice floe distribution is potentially affected by the state of winter sea ice, including the composition and fracturing (caused by deformation events) of winter sea ice, and that substantial mid-summer breakup of sea ice floes is likely linked to the timing of thermodynamic melt of sea ice in the area. As the rate of deformation and thermodynamic melt of sea ice has been increasing in the MIZ in the Beaufort Sea, our results suggest that these elevated factors would promote faster and more enhanced breakup of sea ice, leading to a higher melt rate of sea ice and thus a more rapid advance of the summer MIZ.