Landfast sea ice breakouts: Stabilizing ice features, oceanic and atmospheric forcing at Barrow, Alaska

Abstract

15Landfast sea ice is an important seasonal feature along most Arctic coastlines, 16 such as that of the Chukchi Sea near Barrow, Alaska. Its stability throughout the ice 17 season is determined by many factors but grounded pressure ridges are the primary 18 stabilizing component. Landfast ice breakouts occur when these grounded ridges 19 fail or unground, and previously stationary ice detaches from the coast and drifts 20 away. Using ground-based radar imagery from a coastal ice and ocean observatory 21at Barrow, we have developed a method to estimate the extent of grounded ridges 22 by tracking ice motion and deformation over the course of winter and have derived 23

Favorable Conditions for Suspension Freezing in an Arctic Coastal Polynya

“…Radar imagery was acquired every 5 min and archived by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks (http://feeder.gina.alaska.edu/). The details of the coastal radar system and data processing are described in Jones et al ().…”

“…edu/). The details of the coastal radar system and data processing are described in Jones et al (2016).…”

“…From late fall through spring, landfast sea ice persists just off the coast around Utqiaġvik (Figure ; Mahoney, Eicken, Gaylord, & Shapiro, , Mahoney, Eicken, & Shapiro, , Mahoney et al, ; Druckenmiller et al, ; Jones et al, ). When southeasterly winds move the ice pack offshore, a polynya or flaw lead forms beyond the landfast ice edge.…”

Evaluating Landfast Sea Ice Ridging near UtqiaġVik Alaska Using TanDEM-X Interferometry

“…The extent of landfast ice depends on bathymetry, as well as ice, ocean, and atmospheric conditions, and varies substantially with region. In the Laptev, Kara, and East Siberian seas, landfast ice can extend over one hundred kilometers offshore, in part due to the predominate offshore wind environment resulting in little strain from interaction with the pack ice [6][7][8][9].…”

“…Here, landfast ice is more extensive with longer duration in the eastern Beaufort Sea than in the Chukchi Sea. This is largely due to the coastal morphology in relation to the Beaufort Gyre which creates a dynamic sea ice environment in the western Beaufort and Chukchi seas [8]. Utqiaġvik, Alaska, previously known as Barrow, is situated near point Barrow, the confluence between the Beaufort and the Chukchi Seas.…”