Changes in the modeled ice thickness distribution near the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) drifting ice camp

Abstract

In the polar oceans the ice thickness distribution controls the exchange of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere and determines the strength of the ice. The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment included a year‐long field program centered on a drifting ice station in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in the Arctic Ocean from October 1997 through October 1998. Here we use camp observations and develop methods to assimilate ice thickness and open water observations into a model in order to estimate the evolution of the thickness distribution in the vicinity of the camp. A thermodynamic model is used to simulate the ice growth and melt, and an ice redistribution model is used to simulate the opening and ridging processes. Data assimilation procedures are developed and then used to assimilate observations of the thickness distribution. Assimilated observations include those of the thin end of the distribution determined by aircraft surveys of the surface temperature and helicopter photographic surveys and aircraft microwave estimates of the open water fraction. The deformation of the ice was determined primarily from buoy and RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS) measurements of the ice velocity. Because of the substantial convergence and ridging observed in the spring and summer, the estimated mean ice thickness increases by 59%, from 1.53 to 2.44 m, over the year in spite of a net thermodynamic ice loss for most multiyear ice.