Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer

Abstract In March and April 2021, buoys were deployed in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, to measure sea‐ice horizontal deformation over spatial scales that had not been previously achieved. Geodetic‐quality position measurements allowed measurements of strain‐rate over lengths from about 200 m to 2 ...

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Main Authors: Jennifer K. Hutchings, Angela C. Bliss, Dhiman Mondal, Pedro Elosegui
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-06-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL108582
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author Jennifer K. Hutchings
Angela C. Bliss
Dhiman Mondal
Pedro Elosegui
author_facet Jennifer K. Hutchings
Angela C. Bliss
Dhiman Mondal
Pedro Elosegui
author_sort Jennifer K. Hutchings
collection DOAJ
description Abstract In March and April 2021, buoys were deployed in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, to measure sea‐ice horizontal deformation over spatial scales that had not been previously achieved. Geodetic‐quality position measurements allowed measurements of strain‐rate over lengths from about 200 m to 2 km. Conventional ice‐drifters extended spatial coverage up to about 100 km. Past studies find there is multi‐fractal behavior for horizontal sea‐ice deformation from 10 to 1,000 km. Our results demonstrate that such behavior does not hold when including spatial scales below 10 km. We find that sea‐ice deformation is not scale invariant between the scale of individual sea‐ice floes and aggregates of floes. Therefore, we cannot expect the same physical laws or forcing to describe sea‐ice kinematics over these regimes, nor can we assume log‐log linear behavior for mean deformation. Using this scaling behavior as a metric to validate models that resolve sea ice floes and their interactions is hence not recommended.
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spelling doaj-art-e79e1b1ab4e048879bd318fe7db7404e2025-08-20T01:52:06ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072024-06-015112n/an/a10.1029/2024GL108582Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a KilometerJennifer K. Hutchings0Angela C. Bliss1Dhiman Mondal2Pedro Elosegui3Oregon State University Corvallis OR USACryospheric Sciences Laboratory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USAMassachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory Westford MA USAMassachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory Westford MA USAAbstract In March and April 2021, buoys were deployed in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, to measure sea‐ice horizontal deformation over spatial scales that had not been previously achieved. Geodetic‐quality position measurements allowed measurements of strain‐rate over lengths from about 200 m to 2 km. Conventional ice‐drifters extended spatial coverage up to about 100 km. Past studies find there is multi‐fractal behavior for horizontal sea‐ice deformation from 10 to 1,000 km. Our results demonstrate that such behavior does not hold when including spatial scales below 10 km. We find that sea‐ice deformation is not scale invariant between the scale of individual sea‐ice floes and aggregates of floes. Therefore, we cannot expect the same physical laws or forcing to describe sea‐ice kinematics over these regimes, nor can we assume log‐log linear behavior for mean deformation. Using this scaling behavior as a metric to validate models that resolve sea ice floes and their interactions is hence not recommended.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL108582sea icedeformationGNSS
spellingShingle Jennifer K. Hutchings
Angela C. Bliss
Dhiman Mondal
Pedro Elosegui
Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
Geophysical Research Letters
sea ice
deformation
GNSS
title Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
title_full Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
title_fullStr Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
title_full_unstemmed Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
title_short Sea Ice Deformation Is Not Scale Invariant Over Length Scales Greater Than a Kilometer
title_sort sea ice deformation is not scale invariant over length scales greater than a kilometer
topic sea ice
deformation
GNSS
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL108582
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AT angelacbliss seaicedeformationisnotscaleinvariantoverlengthscalesgreaterthanakilometer
AT dhimanmondal seaicedeformationisnotscaleinvariantoverlengthscalesgreaterthanakilometer
AT pedroelosegui seaicedeformationisnotscaleinvariantoverlengthscalesgreaterthanakilometer