Multiyear sea ice floe distribution in the Canadian Arctic Ocean

Abstract

A series of aerial photographic flights, made over the polar pack ice during April 1982, from M'Clure Strait in the south to Ellef Ringnes Island in the north, shows the changes in ice floe type, size, and area as the pack moves southwest under the effect of the Polar Gyre. The area has some of the most heavily ridged and dynamically active ice in the Arctic Ocean. Floe size distributions were found to fit a negative power relationship (y = A xb, where b = −3.7), rather than the expected negative exponential function. A Prony analysis suggests that a single physical parameter controls the distribution: most likely splitting, rather than bending, shear, or crushing. The effect of proximity to the coast was investigated and showed that nearshore floes were about 20% smaller than their offshore counterparts. The ratio of maximum to minimum floe diameter was consistently 1.5–1.6. The mean floe diameter was found to be 700 m; the mean area was 0.38 km 2.Heavily hummocked and ridged floes were found to be a fairly constant fraction (1%) of the multiyear pack.