Comparing GNSS Derived Sea Ice Drift in the Arctic and Antarctic using Rotary Spectra and Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

Sea ice drift underpins air-sea-ice coupling and model evaluation, but the Southern Ocean remains chronically undersampled relative to the Arctic. This work presents a cross-polar comparison of GNSS-tracked ice-drift time series using rotary spectral analysis, principal component analysis, inter-buoy coherence, complementary shape- and amplitude-sensitive spectral differences. Arctic data are aggregated into Beaufort Gyre and Transpolar Drift seasonal composites (2017--2024); Antarctic data comprise eight heterogeneous campaigns (2000--2022) with small buoy counts and short durations. After common quality control, the clearest cross-polar similarity is spectral organisation: both regions show strong low-frequency variance and a hemisphere-appropriate rotary enhancement near the Coriolis frequency, interpreted cautiously as a combined inertial--semidiurnal response. Coherence is highest at synoptic scales and declines toward higher frequencies. Southern Ocean campaigns occupy a higher-energy envelope, so similar band structure does not imply similar drift amplitude. Principal components capture much array-scale motion, but high cumulative variance does not substitute for dense sampling of smaller-scale processes. The results provide transferable frequency-resolved benchmarks (dominant variance below 0.5 cpd and in the near-inertial band, an expanded Arctic reference, and explicit separation of spectral shape from amplitude) to inform future observing-system design without assuming identical dynamical regimes.