HR: 0800h
AN: U41A-0806    [Abstracts]
TI: Nares Strait Ice Flux
AU: * Kwok, R
EM: ron.kwok@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 300-235 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: Six years (1996-2002) of Arctic Ocean ice flux through Nares Strait are estimated using ice motion from RADARSAT. Across an ~30 km gate at the entrance to Robeson Channel, the average annual (Sept-Aug) ice area flux is 33x10³ km² and ranges from 16x10³ km² in 2000 to 48x10³ km² in 1999. Uncertainties in the ice displacements from high-resolution synthetic aperture radar imagery, at ~100-300 m, are small. Assuming sea ice that is 3 m thick, the average volume flux amounts to ~100 km³ (~3 mSv); this is ~5% of the mean annual Fram Strait ice flux (1978-2003). Seasonally, ice flux is most active after July, ceases after the formation of an ice arch in mid- to late-winter, and re-commences after breakup in the late spring. The multiyear ice coverage of the area poleward of the gate is high (>80%). South of the gate, the multiyear ice coverage is highly variable and is reduced as individual floes, small enough to fit through the channel, are broken off the Arctic pack. After the formation of an ice arch in winter, the channel may be filled with multiyear or seasonal ice. The details of the ice flux estimates are presented.
DE: 0750 Sea ice (4540)
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography (9310, 9315)
SC: Union [U]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005