Abstract
Abstract. The Robeson Channel is a narrow sea water passage between Greenland and Ellesmere Island in the Arctic. It is a pathway of sea ice from the central Arctic and out to Baffin Bay. In this study, we used a set of daily synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Sentinel-1A/1B satellites, acquired between September 2016 and April 2017, to study the kinematics of individual ice floes as they approach and then drift through the Robeson Channel. The tracking of 39 selected ice floes was visually performed in the image sequence, and their speed was calculated and linked to the reanalysis 10 m wind from ERA5. The results show that the drift of ice floes is very slow in the compact ice regime upstream of the Robeson Channel, unless the ice floe is surrounded by water or thin ice. In this case, the wind has more influence on the drift. On the other hand, the ice floe drift is found to be about 4–5 times faster in the open-drift regime within the Robeson Channel and is clearly influenced by wind. A linear trend is found between the change in wind and the change in ice drift speed components, along the length of the channel. Case studies are presented to reveal the role of wind in ice floe drift. This paper also addresses the development of the ice arch at the entry of the Robeson Channel, which started development on 24 January and matured on 1 February 2017. Details of the development, obtained using the sequential SAR images, are presented. It is found that the arch's shape continued to adjust by rupturing ice pieces at the locations of cracks under the influence of the southward wind (and hence the contour kept displacing northward). The findings of this study highlight the advantage of using the high-resolution daily SAR coverage in monitoring aspects of sea ice cover in narrow water passages where the ice cover is highly dynamic. The information will be particularly interesting for the possible applications of SAR constellation systems.
Highlights
IntroductionThe Robeson Channel is located between Greenland and Ellesmere Island (Canada), with its northern location around 82◦ N, 60.5◦ W (Fig. 1)
One of the exit gates for sea ice flux from the Arctic Basin to southern latitudes is through the Robeson Channel
The ice floe motion is considered in two separate regimes: north of the Robeson Channel near its entrance and within the Robeson Channel
Summary
The Robeson Channel is located between Greenland and Ellesmere Island (Canada), with its northern location around 82◦ N, 60.5◦ W (Fig. 1). It connects the Lincoln Sea (a southern section of the Arctic Ocean) to the Kennedy Channel, which opens into the Kane Basin. These three water bodies are known as the Nares Strait, which opens southward to Baffin Bay. The Robeson Channel is a short and narrow passage (about 80 km in length and 30 km wide) that is more than 400 m deep along its axis. After using two ocean simulations to study the circulation and transport within the Nares Strait, Shroyer et al (2015) found that
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