Sea-ice motion in the Weddell Sea from drifting-buoy and AVHRR data

Abstract

AbstractA study of sea ice in the northern Weddell Sea was done, relating the ice motion, determined using an array of satellite-tracked drifters, deployed into ice floes, to parameters describing the nature of the ice cover, obtained from an analysis of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery. It was found that the ice motion was predominantly wind-driven, responding to the passage of low-pressure systems across the area. The correlation length of the strain field over the entire measurement period was around 200 km. At high concentrations the ice responded as a rigid body with coherent motion, but below a concentration of around 93%, differential motion occurred. The nature of the ice motion was found to depend upon the lead parameters, with low values of pure convergence and divergence and larger values of vorticity and deformation of the ice field. The vorticity was found to be well correlated with the atmospheric pressure, with a time lag of less than 3 h, implying an almost instantaneous response of the ice cover to meteorological forcing.