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arXiv · 2007.07476

Experimental evidence for a universal threshold characterizing wave-induced sea ice break-up

J. J. Voermans·J. Rabault·K. Filchuk·I. Ryzhov·P. Heil·A. Marchenko·C. Collins·M. Dabboor·G. Sutherland·A. V. Babanin
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Abstract

Waves can drastically transform a sea ice cover by inducing break-up over vast distances in the course of a few hours. However, relatively few detailed studies have described this phenomenon in a quantitative manner, and the process of sea ice break-up by waves needs to be further parameterized and verified before it can be reliably included in forecasting models. In the present work, we discuss sea ice break-up parameterization and demonstrate the existence of an observational threshold separating breaking and non-breaking cases. This threshold is based on information from two recent field campaigns, supplemented with existing observations of sea ice break-up. The data used cover a wide range of scales, from laboratory-grown sea ice to polar field observations. Remarkably, we show that both field and laboratory observations tend to converge to a single quantitative threshold at which the wave-induced sea ice break-up takes place, which opens a promising avenue for robust parametrization in operational forecasting models.

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J. J. Voermans, J. Rabault, K. Filchuk, I. Ryzhov, P. Heil, A. Marchenko, C. Collins, M. Dabboor, G. Sutherland, A. V. Babanin. 2020-07-15. Experimental evidence for a universal threshold characterizing wave-induced sea ice break-up. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4265-2020

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