Fractal scaling behavior of a sea ice draft field in the Chukchi Sea

Abstract

In the event that an Arctic oil spill occurs, oil spill modelers need to understand how oil moves along the subsurface of sea ice to predict how a slick will migrate. Currently, modeling the subsurface topography of sea ice has been hampered by a lack of understanding of this complex surface. Using sonar data from the Chukchi Sea, an investigation into whether this subsurface topography exhibited fractal scaling behavior was initiated. It was established that young sea ice exhibits multifractal scaling geometry parameters α, c1, and H as 1.2, 0.03, and 0.12, respectively. Fractal scaling behavior was not found for other types of sea ice. Having established such an analysis is useful, future efforts to expand the work are suggested.