Sea ice and iceberg observations in the western Barents sea in 1987

Abstract

A multisensor ice data acquisition programme for the western Barents Sea was carried out during three field campaigns in the mid winter and fall of 1987. The main purpose of the programme was to obtain comprehensive information about the ice in the area at that time. The reasoning was that prior to any oil/gas exploration and production in the Barents Sea, the physical environment has to be quantitatively surveyed in order to ensure safe operations related to human safety, the regular operability and safety of the structure and protection of the environment. Prior to this field investigation programme in 1987 data on sea ice and icebergs for engineering purposes for the western Barents Sea were meagre. The present paper highlights some of the findings with emphasis on ice edge speeds, ice edge displacement and ice drift. For icebergs, the paper focuses on population, size distributions and geometric parameters. Further, the paper discusses the production of icebergs in the Barents Sea and highlights drift and observed extreme drift speeds of two icebergs which were tagged with satellite positioning buoys in 1987. Drift speeds exceeding 1 m s −1 are often reported for short periods, but this study logged a maximum speed of 1.38 ms −1 and an unprecedented mean speed of 1.13 ms −1 during a 31 hour period with strong tailwind.