Spring 2021 sea ice transport in the southern Beaufort Sea occurred during coastal-lead opening events

Jewell, MacKenzie E.; Hutchings, Jennifer K.; Bliss, Angela C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1413-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1413-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1413-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Research article

|

28 Mar 2025

Research article |

| 28 Mar 2025

Spring 2021 sea ice transport in the southern Beaufort Sea occurred during coastal-lead opening events

MacKenzie E. Jewell, Jennifer K. Hutchings, and Angela C. Bliss

Data sets

Sea Ice Drift Tracks for the SIDEx Field Campaign 2021 J. Hutchings et al. https://doi.org/10.18739/A2J678Z4N

Sea Ice Remote Sensing Universität Bremen https://seaice.uni-bremen.de/sea-ice-concentration/

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Polar Pathfinder Daily 25 km EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors M. Tschudi et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/INAWUWO7QH7B

EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age, Version 4 M. Tschudi et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/UTAV7490FEPB

MYD021KM - Level 1B Calibrated Radiances - 1km MODIS Characterization Support Team https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD021KM.061

MOD021KM - Level 1B Calibrated Radiances - 1km MODIS Characterization Support Team https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD021KM.061

VIIRS/JPSS1 Moderate Resolution 6-Min L1B Swath 750 m. Version 2.1 VCST Team https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VJ102MOD.021

VIIRS/NPP Moderate Resolution Terrain Corrected Geolocation 6-Min L1 Swath 750 m. Version 2 VCST Team https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/VNP02MOD.002

GEBCO 2022 Grid GEBCO Compilation Group https://doi.org/10.5285/e0f0bb80-ab44-2739-e053-6c86abc0289c

Model code and software

Sea ice transport analysis with SIDEx buoys MacKenzie Jewell https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7567150

Video supplement

Movie S1 MacKenzie Jewell https://doi.org/10.5446/67449

Movie S2 MacKenzie Jewell https://doi.org/10.5446/67450

Short summary

We quantify the contribution of sea ice drift during coastal-lead events to seasonal ice transport in the Beaufort Sea. Data from GPS tracker buoys deployed as part of the Sea Ice Dynamic Experiment (SIDEx) in spring 2021 show that sea ice in the southern Beaufort Sea became more responsive to wind forcing during fracturing events detected from satellite observations. Nearly all the spring 2021 sea ice transport occurred during these events, highlighting their importance at seasonal timescales.