Unusual drift behaviour of multi-year sea ice in the Beaufort Sea during summer 2018

Keywords: Sea-ice motion, satellite remote sensing, shipping, North-west Passage

Abstract

In summer 2018, thick sea ice blocked the mouth of the Amundsen Gulf (AG), Canada, obstructing shipping through the North-west Passage. This study analysed multi-year ice motion to investigate the source of this thick ice and the reasons for its unusual movement. For this purpose, a daily multi-year ice distribution product was generated by ice tracking using gridded daily sea-ice velocities (2003–2018) derived from the AMSR-E and AMSR-2 data. From autumn 2017 to summer 2018, the area of multi-year ice extended westward to the Beaufort Sea and then migrated towards the AG mouth. The primary cause of the unusual ice cover was anomalous AG-ward wind in September 2018. It is known that multi-year ice has become increasingly moveable over the past decades, as indicated by the increasing wind factor (i.e., ratio of ice-drift speed and wind speed), but the unusual ice motion in the summer of 2018 cannot be explainable by the wind factor alone. Accurately, predicting monthly wind and monitoring old thick ice will reduce the risk posed by thick Arctic sea ice to shipping.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References


Aaboe S., Breivik L.A., Sørensen A., Eastwood S. & Lavergne T. 2017. Global sea ice edge and type product user’s manual. OSI-402-c & OSI-403-c. Version 2.2. SAF/OSI/CDOP2/MET-Norway/TEC/MA/205. Satellite Application Facility on Ocean and Sea Ice, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Accessed on the internet at http://osisaf.met.no/docs/osisaf_cdop3_ss2_pum_sea-ice-edge-type_v2p2.pdf on 13 June 2018.


Barber D.G., Babb D.G., Ehn J.K., Chan W., Matthes L., Dalman L.A., Campbell Y., Harasyn M.L., Firoozy N., Theriault N., Lukovich J.V., Zagon T., Papakyriakou T., Capelle D.W., Forest A. & Gariepy A. 2018. Increasing mobility of High Arctic sea ice increases marine hazards off the east coast of Newfoundland. Geophysical Research Letters 45, 2370–2379, doi: 10.1002/2017GL076587.


Cavalieri D.J. & Parkinson C.K. 2008. Arctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979–2006. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 113, C07003, doi: 10.1029/2007JC004558.


Cavalieri D.J. & Parkinson C.L. 2012. Arctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979–2010. The Cryosphere 6, 881–889, doi: 10.5194/tc-6-881-2012.


Comiso J.C. 2009. Enhanced sea ice concentrations and ice extents from AMSR-E data. Journal of Remote Sensing of Japan 29, 199–215.


Comiso J.C. 2012. Large decadal decline of the Arctic multiyear ice cover. Journal of Climate 25, 1176–1193, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00113.1.


Dee D.P., Uppala S.M., Simmons A.J., Berrisford P., Poli P., Kobayashi S., Andrae U., Balmaseda M.A., Balsamo G., Bauer P., Bechtold P., Beljaars A.C.M., van de Berg L., Bidlot J., Bormann N., Delsol C., Dragani R., Fuentes M., Geer A.J., Haimberger L., Healy S.B., Hersbach H., Hólm E.V., Isaksen L., Kållberg P., Köhler M., Matricardi M., McNally A.P., Monge-Sanz B.M., Morcrette J.-J., Park B.K., Peubey C., de Rosnay P., Tavolato C., Thépaut J.-N. & Vitart F. 2011. The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 137, 553–597, doi: 10.1002/qj.828.


Galley R.J., Babb D., Ogi M., Else B.G.T., Geilfus N.-X., Crabeck O., Barber D.G. & Rysgaard S. 2016. Replacement of multiyear sea ice and changes in the open water season duration in the Beaufort Sea since 2004. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 121, 1806–1823, doi: 10.1002/2015JC011583.


Haas C., Beckers J., King J., Silis A., Stroeve J., Wilkinson J., Notenboom B., Schweiger A. & Hendricks S. 2017. Ice and snow thickness variability and change in the High Arctic Ocean observed by in situ measurements. Geophysical Research Letters 44, 10462–10469, doi: 10.1002/2017GL075434.


Hutchings J.K. & Rigor I.G. 2012. Role of ice dynamics in anomalous ice conditions in the Beaufort Sea during 2006 and 2007. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 117, C00E04, doi: 10.1029/2011JC007182.


Kimura N., Nishimura A., Tanaka Y. & Yamaguchi H. 2013. Influence of winter sea ice motion on summer ice cover in the Arctic. Polar Research 32, article no. 20193, doi: 10.3402/polar.v32i0.20193.


Kimura N. & Wakatsuchi M. 2000. Relationship between sea-ice motion and geostrophic wind in the Northern Hemisphere. Geophysical Research Letters 27, 3735–3738, doi: 10.1029/2000GL011495.


Korosov A., Rampal P., Pedersen L.T., Saldo R., Ye Y., Heygster G., Lavergne T., Aaboe S. & Girard-Ardhuin F. 2018. A new tracking algorithm for sea ice age distribution estimation. The Cryosphere 12, 2073–2085, doi: 10.5194/tc-12-2073-2018.


Krishfield R.A., Proshutinsky A., Tateyama K., Williams W.J., Carmack E.C., McLaughlin F.A. & Timmermans M.L. 2014. Deterioration of perennial sea ice in the Beaufort Gyre from 2003 to 2012 and its impact on the oceanic freshwater cycle. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 119, 1271–1305, doi: 10.1002/2013JC008999.


Kwok R. 2018. Arctic sea ice thickness, volume, and multiyear ice coverage: losses and coupled variability (1958–2018). Environmental Research Letters 13, 105005.


Kwok R. & Cunningham G.F. 2015. Variability of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume from CryoSat-2. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 373, article no. 20140157, doi: 10.1098/rsta.2014.0157.


Kwok R., Spreen G. & Pang S. 2013. Arctic sea ice circulation and drift speed: decadal trends and ocean currents. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 118, 2408–2425, doi: 10.1002/jgrc.20191.


Mahoney A.R., Hutchings J.K., Eicken H. & Haas C. 2019. Changes in the thickness and circulation of multiyear ice in the Beaufort Gyre determined from pseudo-Lagrangian methods from 2003–2015. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 124, 5618–5633, doi: 10.1029/2018JC014911.


Maslanik J.A., Fowler C., Stroeve J., Drobot S., Zwally J., Yi D. & Emery W. 2007. A younger, thinner Arctic ice cover: increased potential for rapid, extensive sea-ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L24501, doi: 10.1029/2007GL032043.


Maslanik J.A., Stroeve J., Fowler C. & Emery W. 2011. Distribution and trends in Arctic sea ice age through spring 2011. Geophysical Research Letters 38, L13502, doi: 10.1029/2011GL047735.


Ricker R., Hendricks S., Helm V., Skourup H. & Davidson M. 2014. Sensitivity of CryoSat-2 Arctic sea-ice freeboard and thickness on radar-waveform interpretation. The Cryosphere 8, 1607–1622, doi: 10.5194/tc-8-1607-2014.


Stroeve J., Holland M.M., Meier W., Scambos T. & Serreze M. 2007. Arctic sea ice decline: faster than forecast. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L09501, doi: 10.1029/2007GL029703.


Thorndike A.S. & Colony R. 1982. Sea ice motion in response to geostrophic winds. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans 87, 5845–5852, doi: 10.1029/JC087iC08p05845.


Tilling R.L., Ridout A. & Shepherd A. 2018. Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data. Advances in Space Research 62, 1203–1225, doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2017.10.051.


Tschudi M.A., Stroeve J.C. & Stewart J.S. 2016. Relating the age of Arctic sea ice to its thickness, as measured during NASA’s ICESat and Ice Bridge campaigns. Remote Sensing 8, article no. 457, doi: 10.3390/rs8060457.


Weber B. 2018. Arctic communities won’t get crucial supplies after barge cancelled due to excess sea ice. The Canadian Press, 3 October. Accessed on the internet at https://globalnews.ca/news/4513776/arctic-barge-cancelled-supplies/ on 7 September 2020.


Worby A.P. & Allison I. 1999. A technique for making ship-based observations of Antarctic sea ice thickness and characteristics. Part I: observational technique and results. Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre Research Report 14, 1–23.
Published
2020-10-14
How to Cite
Kimura N., Tateyama K., Sato K., Krishfield R. A., & Yamaguchi H. (2020). Unusual drift behaviour of multi-year sea ice in the Beaufort Sea during summer 2018. Polar Research, 39. https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3617
Section
Research Articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)