FastFind »   Lastname: doi:10.1029/ Year: | Advanced Search  

AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • ocean waves
  • Arctic
  • sea ice

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Physical: Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Surface waves and tides
  • Cryosphere: Sea ice
  • Global Change: Cryospheric change
  • Cryosphere: Modeling

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 36, L22502, 5 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009GL040676

Ocean surface wave evolvement in the Arctic Basin

Vernon A. Squire

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Gareth L. Vaughan

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Luke G. Bennetts

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Recent basin-scale changes to the compactness and thickness of Arctic sea ice foreshadow that encroaching swells and locally generated waves will exert more influence there in the future. Indeed, it is conceivable that waves may have already hastened the adjustments observed by breaking up ice floes. Yet waves advancing in sea ice attenuate due to being scattered from ice thickness variations and damped by ice inelasticity, turbulence and friction. While past research focuses on scattering by unnaturally perfect features in the ice, the model reported herein assimilates realistic basin-scale swathes of heterogeneous ice and parameterizes damping. By way of example, we show how an ocean wave train evolves during its passage in an 1670-km-long Arctic sea ice profile obtained from submarine.

Received 27 August 2009; accepted 29 October 2009; published 21 November 2009.

Citation: Squire, V. A., G. L. Vaughan, and L. G. Bennetts (2009), Ocean surface wave evolvement in the Arctic Basin, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L22502, doi:10.1029/2009GL040676.

Cited By

Please wait one moment ...