Ice Island Drift Mechanisms in the Canadian High Arctic

Wychen, Wesley Van; Copland, Luke

doi:10.1007/978-94-024-1101-0_11

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Immense, tabular icebergs have been described as 'ice islands' since the Resolution and Adventurer dodged the hazards during James Cook's 1772-1775 expedition to circumnavigate Antarctica (Herdman, 1959). These stable platforms were used for military operations and also served as research stations in the Arctic Ocean for 40 years, ending in 1992 (Belkin and Kessel, 2017;Van Wychen and Copland, 2017). They have been observed frequently in both Polar Regions as the conditions conducive to the calving of floating ice tongues (FITs) and ice shelves (i.e., reduced sea ice extents and warmer ocean and atmospheric temperatures) become more common with the onset of climate change (Copland et al, 2017).…”

Section: Ice Islands In a Changing Climate And Research Justificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice island deterioration

Crawford¹

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Ice islands are large, tabular icebergs that calve from ice shelves and floating ice tongues. Their drift and deterioration is of concern to offshore industry and influences the dispersal of freshwater from Earth's major ice sheets. However, the analysis and modelling of ice island deterioration is constrained by a lack of systematic studies using field and remotely sensed data. The aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of ice island deterioration through the use and development of novel techniques and datasets. It uses complementary field and remotely sensed datasets in three studies that individually focus on vertical deterioration (i.e., thinning), small-scale areal deterioration (e.g., wave erosion), and large-scale areal deterioration (i.e., fracture). The study subjects are ice islands in eastern Canadian waters that calved from the Petermann Glacier of northwest Greenland between 2008 and 2012. The vertical deterioration of a grounded Petermann ice island (PII) was quantified with stationary ice penetrating radar (IPR), mobile IPR and ablation stake data measurements collected over three field campaigns. Derived basal ablation was used to calibrate a basal ablation model, which was applied in a separate study to quantify the spatial distribution of meltwater from the drift and deterioration of hundreds of PIIs. This study used the Canadian Ice Island Drift, Deterioration and Detection Database, which was generated through the analysis of thousands of RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar scenes. The database was also used to evaluate the fit of statistical distributions to the size-frequency distributions of PIIs. The results indicate that fracture remained an influential deterioration process over the monitoring period. A third study found that deterioration on the order of 40 cm could be detected under optimal conditions with aerial photogrammetry with structure-from-motion processing and that this technique was superior to laser scanning. iii This thesis presents new insights into ice island deterioration processes. It also documents new techniques for measuring deterioration and contributes pertinent information to two major ice island research themes (i.e., hazards and freshwater vectors). Finally, many results and future research directions are applicable to ice island research conducted in both Polar Regions on planet Earth. The time that I have spent as a graduate student researching big, diminishing blocks of ice has been an incredible experience due to a wide support network. Derek Mueller's supervision was paramount, as was his encouragement, understanding and enthusiasm for innovation. I thank Gregory Crocker and Doug King for providing strategic and analytical guidance from the time of my comprehensive exam to thesis submission. I also greatly appreciate the thoughtful review of my thesis by Douglas MacAyeal (University of Chicago) and Shawn Kenney (Carleton University). It has been exciting to watch the Water and Ice Research Lab (WIRL) grow over my seven years in the Department of...

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Section: Ice Islands In a Changing Climate And Research Justificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice island deterioration

Crawford¹

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“…The decreased drift rates of the WCA ice islands when located along the northwest coast of the CAA demonstrates the effect of the presence of sea ice on ice island drift speed. Ice islands in the WCA normally circulate within the Beaufort Gyre (a small number originating from northern Ellesmere Island travel east and south through Nares Strait or through the CAA) (Peterson, 2011;VanWychen and Copland, forthcoming). Ice islands within the Beaufort Gyre have been observed to survive multiple cycles (3-4) around the gyre, each taking 5-10 years (Jeffries, 1992), before deteriorating fully or being picked up by the Transpolar Drift Stream (Jeffries, 1992) and being directed into the North Atlantic.…”

Section: Drift Tracks Environmental Conditions and Deteriorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice Island Deterioration in the Canadian Arctic: Rates, Patterns and Model Evaluation

Crawford¹

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Knowledge regarding the deterioration processes of large tabular icebergs, known as ice islands, is limited within the Canadian Arctic. This study analyzed ice island deterioration through two aspects: 1) horizontal (areal) and 2) vertical (surface melt or 'ablation'). Satellite images were digitized to monitor areal dimensions, classify deterioration modes and correlate deterioration rates with environmental variables. The rates of deterioration were different between the Eastern and Western Canadian Arctic regions possibly due to differences in air temperature and sea ice concentration. Validation of operational surface ablation models was also carried out with in-situ microclimate measurements. The Canadian Ice Service iceberg model under-predicted surface ablation by 68%, while a more complete energy-balance model developed for ice islands improved output accuracy (7.5% under-prediction). These analyses will provide useful knowledge regarding the deterioration process of ice islands to offshore stakeholders for mitigation of risks associated with ice island hazards to offshore operations.iii

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“…Ice islands within Arctic Canada are produced from only two areas: the ice shelves fringing northern Ellesmere Island and floating ice tongues along the northwestern coast of Greenland (Crawford et al 2016;Jeffries 1992) (Figure 2.3). In the past, they have been known to drift around the Arctic for up to a decade before completely deteriorating, but today, most ice islands survive for up to only a few years (Crawford et al, 2018b;Kristensen, 1983;Van Wychen and Copland, 2017). The sail is the mass that remains above the waterline (1); the freeboard is the height of the ice island sidewall above the waterline (2) while the draft is the vertical depth below it (3).…”

Section: Ice Island Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Deterioration plays an important complementary role in risk forecasting. Ice islands sporadically calve smaller fragments that can be difficult to detect, but are still considered large enough to be a hazard to offshore activities (Van Wychen and Copland, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling ice island calving events with Finite Element Analysis

Smith¹

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I am exceedingly thankful to Derek Mueller for taking me on as a student and encouraging me to embrace quantitative research and computer programming, for giving me the chance to conduct fieldwork in the Arctic, and for the excellent quality of feedback and guidance throughout my time as a graduate student at the Water and Ice Research Laboratory (WIRL) at Carleton University. My co-supervisor, Gregory Crocker, and Mahmud Sazidy were also necessary for the completion of this thesis. I am grateful for their recommendations and support on the technically-challenging aspects of my project. The staff at LS-DYNA have been wonderfully patient with my never-ending questions about the software, and Abass Braimah provided access to the software. My fellow lab mates at WIRL provided a lot of assistance with general GIS, statistics, and Microsoft Word problems whenever the Internet (or my short attention span) failed me. My fieldwork would not have gone smoothly without the assistance of Adam Garbo, Abigail Dalton, Claire Bernard Grand-Maison, Guillaume Carpentier, Jade Brossard, and all of the crew aboard the CCGS Amundsen during Leg 3 of the summer 2018 science cruise. I'm still in awe that we managed to get the data in spite of many setbacks.

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Ice Island Drift Mechanisms in the Canadian High Arctic

Cited by 9 publications

References 57 publications

Ice island deterioration

Ice island deterioration

Ice Island Deterioration in the Canadian Arctic: Rates, Patterns and Model Evaluation

Modelling ice island calving events with Finite Element Analysis

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