1. Relating wave attenuation to pancake ice thickness, using field measurements and model results
- Author
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Giacomo De Carolis, Martin Doble, Michael H. Meylan, Jean-Raymond Bidlot, Peter Wadhams, Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Observatoire océanologique de Villefranche-sur-mer (OOVM), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), CNR-IREA Milan, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle [Australia] (UoN), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Department of applied maths and theoretical physics, University of Cambridge [UK] (CAM), and University of Newcastle [Callaghan, Australia] (UoN)
- Subjects
geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Buoy ,[SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph] ,Attenuation ,Turbulence modeling ,Geometry ,[PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph] ,Geophysics ,sea ice ,pancake ice ,Boundary layer ,Sea ice growth processes ,Pancake ice ,Sea ice thickness ,Sea ice ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,wave attenuation ,viscous model ,Geology ,Physics::Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - Abstract
International audience; Wave attenuation coefficients (α, m À1) were calculated from in situ data transmitted by custom wave buoys deployed into the advancing pancake ice region of the Weddell Sea. Data cover a 12 day period as the buoy array was first compressed and then dilated under the influence of a passing low-pressure system. Attenuation was found to vary over more than 2 orders of magnitude and to be far higher than that observed in broken-floe marginal ice zones. A clear linear relation between α and ice thickness was demonstrated, using ice thickness from a novel dynamic/thermodynamic model. A simple expression for α in terms of wave period and ice thickness was derived, for application in research and operational models. The variation of α was further investigated with a two-layer viscous model, and a linear relation was found between eddy viscosity in the sub-ice boundary layer and ice thickness.
- Published
- 2015
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