Abstract
Abstract. We combine satellite data products to provide a first and general overview of the physical sea ice conditions along the drift of the international Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition and a comparison with previous years (2005–2006 to 2018–2019). We find that the MOSAiC drift was around 20 % faster than the climatological mean drift, as a consequence of large-scale low-pressure anomalies prevailing around the Barents–Kara–Laptev sea region between January and March. In winter (October–April), satellite observations show that the sea ice in the vicinity of the Central Observatory (CO; 50 km radius) was rather thin compared to the previous years along the same trajectory. Unlike ice thickness, satellite-derived sea ice concentration, lead frequency and snow thickness during winter months were close to the long-term mean with little variability. With the onset of spring and decreasing distance to the Fram Strait, variability in ice concentration and lead activity increased. In addition, the frequency and strength of deformation events (divergence, convergence and shear) were higher during summer than during winter. Overall, we find that sea ice conditions observed within 5 km distance of the CO are representative for the wider (50 and 100 km) surroundings. An exception is the ice thickness; here we find that sea ice within 50 km radius of the CO was thinner than sea ice within a 100 km radius by a small but consistent factor (4 %) for successive monthly averages. Moreover, satellite acquisitions indicate that the formation of large melt ponds began earlier on the MOSAiC floe than on neighbouring floes.
Highlights
In October 2019, the icebreaker Polarstern operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, 2017), was moored to an ice floe north of the Laptev Sea (4 October at 85◦ N, 136◦ E)
Results from CS2SMOS mirror these findings of thinner ice close to the Central Observatory (CO) compared to the larger scale, though differences are smaller (Fig. 12; Table 2)
We do not expect that the locally lower thicknesses in the distributed network (DN) are well represented in the CS2SMOS Sea ice thickness (SIT), since these are influenced by a larger region due to the interpolation method
Summary
In October 2019, the icebreaker Polarstern operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, 2017), was moored to an ice floe north of the Laptev Sea (4 October at 85◦ N, 136◦ E). Scientists from 16 different nations on board Polarstern embarked on a 1-year-long journey along the Transpolar Drift towards Fram Strait (Fig. 1). The goal of the international Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) project is to better understand and quantify relevant processes within the coupled atmosphere–ice–ocean system and ecological and biogeochemical feedbacks, leading to much improved climate and Earth system models. T. Krumpen et al.: MOSAiC drift from October 2019 to July 2020
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