Wave-Ice-Ocean Interactions along the Arctic Coast

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Arctic coastlines, and in particular the northern coast of Alaska, are eroding at rates of meters per year. Coastal flooding events are becoming more common, as reductions in seasonal sea ice create large fetches for autumn storms. This project will improve understanding of oceanographic factors associated with coastal erosion and flooding, specifically the trend toward increasing surface wave activity throughout the western Arctic. The investigators will combine field observations and a coupled modeling system to quantify wave-ice-ocean interactions along the Alaska's northern coast. The outcome will be an open-source, process-based modeling system, including model grids and test cases for the northern Alaska coastal zone. This will enhance basic research, public infrastructure planning, climate scenario assessment, and policy-making capability. Public outreach will include K-12 events and public seminars, and the project will provide training for a postdoctoral researcher. Understanding wave-ice-ocean interactions along the Arctic coast is essential to improving the skill of forecast and climate models in the region. These interactions continue to be a focal point for basic research because of the complexities and possible nonlinearities associated with these processes. The project will connect a rapidly changing climatology with the physical processes that are fundamental to Arctic coastal ocean, incorporating natural variability on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. The investigators will apply recent progress in process-based modeling of coastal dynamics, provide detailed field observations along the coast for model validation and calibration, and generate a 20-year hindcast. The hindcast will then be used to investigate the climate signals in Arctic wave-ice-ocean coupling and determine: 1) the significance of coastal protection via scattering and dissipation of waves by sea ice; 2) the thermodynamic and mechanical effects of increasing wave energy; and 3) the changes in coastal flooding and circulation associated with increasing wave momentum. These results will fill a gap between the recent progress modeling wave-ice interactions in deep-water and existing programs studying erosion at the shoreline.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.