DYNAMICS OF WAVE AND ICE INTERACTION IN THE MARGINAL ICE ZONE OF THE BERING SEA

摘要

We study the dynamics of wave and ice interaction in the marginal ice zone (MIZ) in the Bering Sea. First, sea ice features including thickness, type and motion have been analyzed using the high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Segmentation techniques and statistical methods have been used to derive ice motion and deformation maps. The results are compared with low-resolution values derived from AMSR-E data for consistency. Secondly, a two layer ocean-ice numerical model (with wave effects incorporated) has been implemented to study the effects of waves on ice cover and ocean dynamics, including ice edge meandering and up/downwelling in the MIZ. The numerical results have shown these effects significant, consistent with the results of earlier studies. On the other hand, the ice cover in MIZ may act as a natural low pass filter and the short ocean waves could not penetrate too far into the ice cover.