Aerial observations of sea ice break-up by ship waves
- Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 310 allée des ursulines, Rimouski, QC, Canada G5L 3A1
- Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 310 allée des ursulines, Rimouski, QC, Canada G5L 3A1
Abstract. We provide the first in situ observations of floe size distributions (FSD) resulting from wave-induced sea ice break-up. In order to obtain such data, an unmanned aerial vehicle was deployed from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen as it sailed in the vicinity of large ice floes in Baffin Bay and in the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada. When represented as probability density functions weighted by the surface of ice floes, the FSDs exhibit a strong modal shape which confirms the preferential size hypothesis debated in the scientific community. Both FSDs are compared to a flexural rigidity length scale, which depends on ice properties, and with the wavelength scale. This comparison tends to show that the maximal distance between cracks is preferentially dictated by sea ice thickness and elasticity rather than by the wavelength. Temporal analysis of one fracture event is also done. Results show that the break-up advances almost as fast as the wave energy and that waves responsible for the break-up propagate following the mass loading dispersion relation. Moreover, our experiments show that thicker ice can attenuate wave less than thinner ice. This method thus provides key information on the wave-induced FSD, clarifies theoretical aspects from the construction of the FSD to its implementation in models and brings new knowledge regarding the temporal evolution of sea ice break-up.
Elie Dumas-Lefebvre and Dany Dumont
Status: final response (author comments only)
-
RC1: 'Comment on tc-2021-328', Anonymous Referee #1, 12 Dec 2021
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-328/tc-2021-328-RC1-supplement.pdf
- AC3: 'Reply on RC1', Elie Dumas-Lefebvre, 14 Mar 2022
-
RC2: 'Comment on tc-2021-328', Timothy Williams, 05 Jan 2022
-
AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Elie Dumas-Lefebvre, 05 Jan 2022
Hi Timothy, thank you for submitting comments on our paper. I think there might have been an upload error because the pdf attached to your review is about the following paper : WIFF1.0: A hybrid machine-learning-based parameterization of Wave-Induced sea-ice Floe Fracture. Is it possible to upload the right file ?
Have a great day,
Elie
-
RC3: 'Reply on AC1', Timothy Williams, 05 Jan 2022
Hi Elie, sorry about that, that is quite embarrassing. I am uploading the correct version now (same name, different folder...). Regards, Tim
- AC2: 'Reply on RC3', Elie Dumas-Lefebvre, 14 Mar 2022
-
RC3: 'Reply on AC1', Timothy Williams, 05 Jan 2022
-
AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Elie Dumas-Lefebvre, 05 Jan 2022
Elie Dumas-Lefebvre and Dany Dumont
Data sets
Wave-induced sea ice breakup in the Northern Baffin Bay Dumas-Lefebvre Elie, Dumont Dany https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21208.21767
Wave-induced sea ice breakup experiment in the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence Dumas-Lefebvre Elie, Dumont Dany https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27919.10403
Model code and software
breakup Dumas-Lefebvre Elie, Dumont Dany https://gitlasso.uqar.ca/dumael02/breakup
Video supplement
Aerial footage of wave-induced sea ice breakup in the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence Dumas-Lefebvre Elie, Dumont Dany https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.32873.62564
Elie Dumas-Lefebvre and Dany Dumont
Viewed
HTML | XML | Total | BibTeX | EndNote | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
419 | 198 | 21 | 638 | 15 | 11 |
- HTML: 419
- PDF: 198
- XML: 21
- Total: 638
- BibTeX: 15
- EndNote: 11
Viewed (geographical distribution)
Country | # | Views | % |
---|
Total: | 0 |
HTML: | 0 |
PDF: | 0 |
XML: | 0 |
- 1