During field operations in the Greenland and Bering Seas in 1978, 1979 and 1983, a number of experiments were carried out in which wave energy was measured along a line of stations running from the open sea deep into an icefield. Wave buoys in the water and accelerometer packages on floes were the instruments employed, with airborne vertical photography to supply information on floe size distribution. It was found that the decay of waves is exponential, with a decay coefficient which generally increases with frequency except for a roll‐over at the highest frequencies. The observations can be fitted reasonably well to a theory of one‐dimensional scattering.

Abstract. Based on snow- and ice-thickness measurements at >11 000 points augmented by snow- and icecore studies during 4 expeditions from 1986 - 92 in the Weddell Sea, we describe characteristics and distribution patterns of snow and meteoric ice and assess their importance for the mass balance of sea ice. For first-year ice (FY) in the central and eastern Weddell Sea, mean snow depth amounts to 0.16 m (mean ice thickness 0.75 m) compared to 0.53 m (mean ice thickness 1.70 m) for second-year ice (SY) in the northwestern Weddell Sea. Ridged ice retains a thicker snow cover than level ice, with ice thickness and snow depth negatively correlated for the latter, most likely due to aeolian redistribution. During the different expeditions, 8, 15, 17 and 40% of all drill holes exhibited negative freeboard. As a result of flooding and brine seepage into the snow pack, snow salinities averaged 4‰. Through 18O measurements the distribution of meteoric ice (i.e. precipitation) in the sea-ice cover was assessed. Roughly 4% of the total ice thickness consist of meteoric ice (FY 3%, SY 5%). With a mean density of 290 kg/m3, the snow cover itself contributes 8% to total ice mass (7% FY, 11% SY). Analysis of ∆18O in snow indicates a local maximum in accumulation in the 65 to 75°S latitude zone. Hydrogen peroxide in the snow has proven useful as a temporal tracer and for identification of second-year floes. Drawing on accumulation data from stations at the Weddell Sea coast, it becomes clear that the onset of ice growth is important for the evolution of ice thickness and the interaction between ice and snow. Loss of snow to leads due to wind drift may be considerable, yet is reduced owing to metamorphic processes in the snow column. This is confirmed by a comparison of accumulation data from coastal stations and from snow depths over sea ice. Temporal and spatial accumulation patterns of snow are shown to be important in controlling the sea-ice cover evolution.

During the first leg of the Winter Weddell Sea Project (Antarktis V/2) cruise of F.S. Polarstern the entire width of the Antarctic sea ice zone was traversed in the vicinity of 0° longitude in the period July 18 to September 10, 1986. Ice thicknesses were measured by direct drilling and by helicopter profiling using an Exstar 100‐MHz impulse radar system. In addition, aerial photography of the ice cover was done from 100‐ to 2000‐m altitude using a 70‐mm aerial camera mounted in the helicopter. The results of the point measurements (drilling) are reported in this paper together with an indication of how the radar and photography data will be used to extend them so as to yield area‐averaged ice thickness distributions. It was found that the main ice type across the entire width of the ice cover was consolidated pancake ice occurring in vast floes; this formed out of a 250‐km‐wide band at the advancing ice edge which comprised a concentrated field of individual pancakes in a matrix of frazil ice. Preferred thicknesses of undeformed floes were 40–60 cm of ice covered with 5–15 cm of snow. The individual pancakes attained almost all of this thickness before consolidation; subsequent congelation growth was slow, estimated at 0.4 cm d−1. The floes contained much small‐scale roughness on the upper and lower surfaces due to rafting of pancakes at the time of consolidation, but pressure ridging was modest except in the far south. A few very thick (8–11 m) multiyear floes were observed embedded in the pack at latitudes beyond 66° S.

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.

We study a mechanism of iceberg breakup that may act together with the recognized melt and wave-induced decay processes. Our proposal is based on observations from a recent field experiment on a large ice island in Baffin Bay, East Canada. We observed that successive collapses of the overburden from above an unsupported wavecut at the iceberg waterline created a submerged foot fringing the berg. The buoyancy stresses induced by such a foot may be sufficient to cause moderate-sized bergs to break off from the main berg. A mathematical model is developed to test the feasibility of this mechanism. The results suggest that once the foot reaches a critical length, the induced stresses are sufficient to cause calving. The theoretically predicted maximum stable foot length compares well to the data collected in situ. Further, the model provides analytical expressions for the previously observed "rampart-moat" iceberg surface profiles.

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.

ABSTRACT. We present data an ice texture, salinity, and 6 18 0 abtained fram identical sectians af ice cares during the Winter Weddell Sea Praject 1986 an RV Polarstern fram July thraugh August 1986, in the langitude range between 5 oW. and 7°E. We find no. uniquely definable relatianship between 618 0 values and ice texture in a particular sectian. Hawever, mast af the snaw ice as well as same sectians af frazil ice are faund to. have negative 6 18 0 cancentratians. This is due to. varying degrees af admixtures af metearic ice (snaw) and sea-water during farmatian af snaw ice. In cantrast to. camman assumptians, aur results seem to. indicate that a snaw caver cantributes pasitively to. sea-ice grawth rather than slawing dawn the averall grawth rate.