Arctic sea ice has displayed significant thinning as well as an increase in drift speed in recent years. Taken together this suggests an associated rise in sea ice deformation rate. A winter and spring expedition to the sea ice covered region north of Svalbard–the Norwegian young sea ICE2015 expedition (N‐ICE2015)—gave an opportunity to deploy extensive buoy arrays and to monitor the deformation of the first‐year and second‐year ice now common in the majority of the Arctic Basin. During the 5 month long expedition, the ice cover underwent several strong deformation events, including a powerful storm in early February that damaged the ice cover irreversibly. The values of total deformation measured during N‐ICE2015 exceed previously measured values in the Arctic Basin at similar scales: At 100 km scale, N‐ICE2015 values averaged above 0.1 d−1, compared to rates of 0.08 d−1 or less for previous buoy arrays. The exponent of the power law between the deformation length scale and total deformation developed over the season from 0.37 to 0.54 with an abrupt increase immediately after the early February storm, indicating a weakened ice cover with more free drift of the sea ice floes. Our results point to a general increase in deformation associated with the younger and thinner Arctic sea ice and to a potentially destructive role of winter storms.

A model for wind‐generated surface gravity waves, WAVEWATCH III®, is used to analyze and interpret buoy measurements of wave spectra. The model is applied to a hindcast of a wave event in sea ice in the western Arctic, 11–14 October 2015, for which extensive buoy and ship‐borne measurements were made during a research cruise. The model, which uses a viscoelastic parameterization to represent the impact of sea ice on the waves, is found to have good skill—after calibration of the effective viscosity—for prediction of total energy, but over‐predicts dissipation of high frequency energy by the sea ice. This shortcoming motivates detailed analysis of the apparent dissipation rate. A new inversion method is applied to yield, for each buoy spectrum, the inferred dissipation rate as a function of wave frequency. For 102 of the measured wave spectra, visual observations of the sea ice were available from buoy‐mounted cameras, and ice categories (primarily for varying forms of pancake and frazil ice) are assigned to each based on the photographs. When comparing the inversion‐derived dissipation profiles against the independently derived ice categories, there is remarkable correspondence, with clear sorting of dissipation profiles into groups of similar ice type. These profiles are largely monotonic: they do not exhibit the “roll‐over” that has been found at high frequencies in some previous observational studies.

This paper presents a wave‐in‐ice model calibration study. Data used were collected in the thin ice of the advancing autumn marginal ice zone of the western Arctic Ocean in 2015, where pancake ice was found to be prevalent. Multiple buoys were deployed in seven wave experiments; data from four of these experiments are used in the present study. Wave attenuation coefficients are calculated utilizing wave energy decay between two buoys measuring simultaneously within the ice covered region. Wavenumbers are measured in one of these experiments. Forcing parameters are obtained from simultaneous in‐situ and remote sensing observations, as well as forecast/hindcast models. Cases from three wave experiments are used to calibrate a viscoelastic model for wave attenuation/dispersion in ice cover. The calibration is done by minimizing the difference between modeled and measured complex wavenumber, using a multi‐objective genetic algorithm. The calibrated results are validated using two methods. One is to directly apply the calibrated viscoelastic parameters to one of the wave experiments not used in the calibration and then compare the attenuation from the model with measured data. The other is to use the calibrated viscoelastic model in WAVEWATCH III® over the entire western Beaufort Sea and then compare the wave spectra at two remote sites not used in the calibration. Both validations show reasonable agreement between the model and the measured data. The completed viscoelastic model is believed to be applicable to the fall marginal ice zone dominated by pancake ice.

A large collaborative program has studied the coupled air‐ice‐ocean‐wave processes occurring in the Arctic during the autumn ice advance. The program included a field campaign in the western Arctic during the autumn of 2015, with in situ data collection and both aerial and satellite remote sensing. Many of the analyses have focused on using and improving forecast models. Summarizing and synthesizing the results from a series of separate papers, the overall view is of an Arctic shifting to a more seasonal system. The dramatic increase in open water extent and duration in the autumn means that large surface waves and significant surface heat fluxes are now common. When refreezing finally does occur, it is a highly variable process in space and time. Wind and wave events drive episodic advances and retreats of the ice edge, with associated variations in sea ice formation types (e.g., pancakes, nilas). This variability becomes imprinted on the winter ice cover, which in turn affects the melt season the following year.

Wave attenuation coefficients (α, m−1) were calculated from in situ data transmitted by custom wave buoys deployed into the advancing pancake ice region of the Weddell Sea. Data cover a 12 day period as the buoy array was first compressed and then dilated under the influence of a passing low‐pressure system. Attenuation was found to vary over more than 2 orders of magnitude and to be far higher than that observed in broken‐floe marginal ice zones. A clear linear relation between α and ice thickness was demonstrated, using ice thickness from a novel dynamic/thermodynamic model. A simple expression for α in terms of wave period and ice thickness was derived, for application in research and operational models. The variation of α was further investigated with a two‐layer viscous model, and a linear relation was found between eddy viscosity in the sub‐ice boundary layer and ice thickness.

Analysis of field measurements of ocean surface wave activity in the marginal ice zone, from campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic and over a range of different ice conditions, shows the wave attenuation rate with respect to distance has a power law dependence on the frequency with order between two and four. With this backdrop, the attenuation‐frequency power law dependencies given by three dispersion relation models are obtained under the assumptions of weak attenuation, negligible deviation of the wave number from the open water wave number, and thin ice. It is found that two of the models (both implemented in WAVEWATCH III®), predict attenuation rates that are far more sensitive to frequency than indicated by the measurements. An alternative method is proposed to derive dispersion relation models, based on energy loss mechanisms. The method is used to generate example models that predict power law dependencies that are comparable with the field measurements.

No abstract

Many processes that affect ocean surface gravity waves in sea ice give rise to attenuation rates that vary with both wave frequency and amplitude. Here we particularly test the possible effects of basal friction, scattering by ice floes, and dissipation in the ice layer due to dislocations, and ice breakup by the waves. The possible influence of these processes is evaluated in the marginal ice zone of the Beaufort Sea, where extensive wave measurements were performed. The wave data includes in situ measurements and the first kilometer‐scale map of wave heights provided by Sentinel‐1 SAR imagery on 12 October 2015, up to 400 km into the ice. We find that viscous friction at the base of an ice layer gives a dissipation rate that may be too large near the ice edge, where ice is mostly in the form of pancakes. Further into the ice, where larger floes are present, basal friction is not sufficient to account for the observed attenuation. In both regions, the observed narrow directional wave spectra are consistent with a parameterization that gives a weak effect of wave scattering by ice floes. For this particular event, with a dominant wave period around 10 s, we propose that wave attenuation is caused by ice flexure combined with basal friction that is reduced when the ice layer is not continuous. This combination gives realistic wave heights, associated with a 100–200 km wide region over which the ice is broken by waves, as observed in SAR imagery.