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Drift, drag and deterioration: mapping the fate of large ice hazards
conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-24, 15:42 authored by Alexander Forrest, Mueller, D, Laval, B, Hamilton, A, Isak Bowden-FloydIsak Bowden-Floyd, Peter KingPeter King, Damien GuihenDamien Guihen, Vanessa LucieerVanessa LucieerFloating ice hazards are a risk to safe navigation in both the Arctic and the Southern Ocean as a result of changing ice conditions and increased marine traffic in recent years. These hazards include icebergs and ice islands (a type of iceberg in the Arctic that is tabular in shape and up to several km in length). Under the influence of climate change, calving (break-off) rates of tidewater glaciers, floating glacier tongues and ice shelves, the source of icebergs and ice islands, appear to be increasing, particularly in the Arctic. Understanding the drift and deterioration of these ice features is a key challenge to the ice community and tends to be limited by a paucity of observational data from around Newfoundland and Labrador, where water temperatures are significantly warmer and interaction with sea ice is less common than in Arctic waters. Observations of drifting ice islands that calved from the Petermann Glacier in NW Greenland were attempted in 2011 in the Canadian High Arctic (69-75ºN) to examine draft, surface roughness and basal features using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to help improve numerical ice hazard drift models. The AUV was successfully deployed under a grounded ice island, yet key challenges for future deployments involve mapping ice that is both drifting and rotating. Acoustic localization, combined with terrain-relative navigation, is proposed to deal with this motion, enabling accurate in situ measurements of the underside and sidewalls of the ice. This data is required to help understand the drift, deterioration and ultimate fate of these ice hazards in a changing global climate.
History
Publication title
The 22nd International Symposium on Polar Sciences (ISPS) abstractsDepartment/School
Australian Maritime CollegeEvent title
The 22nd International Symposium on Polar Sciences (ISPS)Event Venue
Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, RepublicDate of Event (Start Date)
2016-05-10Date of Event (End Date)
2016-05-11Repository Status
- Restricted