Local tidal currents strongly affect the movement of sea ice in the Arctic ocean and the makeup of the seafloor causes some of the most abrupt changes. Credit: Daniel Watkins.
A new study led by researchers at Brown University offers fresh insights into the forces above and beneath the ocean surface that influence how sea ice moves and disperses in the Arctic Ocean, which is warming at over twice the rate of the global average.
The in-depth analysis reveals how local tidal currents strongly affect the movement of the ice along its journey and provides an unprecedented look at how the makeup of the sea floor is causing some of the most abrupt changes.
Data from the study can be applied to improve complex computer simulations used for forecasting Arctic sea ice conditions, and in the long-term, the results may help clarify how climate change is altering the Arctic and inform future climate predictions.
“The ice is clearly feeling the influence of the bottom of the ocean,” said Daniel Watkins, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown and lead author of the new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. “The landscape at the ocean floor, like canyons and continental shelves, affects tides and other ocean currents. And as it drifts, the sea ice passes over many different undersea features. We see sharp changes in the dynamics of the sea ice as soon as it gets to those undersea features.”
Using data from the largest ever drifting sea-ice buoy array, along with 20 years of satellite images, the researchers examined sea ice motion as it drifted from the Arctic Ocean through a deep-water passage called the Fram Strait and eventually into the Greenland Sea. The analysis revealed the sea floor’s impact on some of the most abrupt changes affecting the sea ice, like dramatic gains in speed or motions that force the ice to pack in close together or even break apart.
“What we see with this data set is a transition from the central Arctic, where the ice is mostly moving as a whole and following wind patterns, to areas where we’re seeing much stronger impacts of ocean currents,” Watkins said.
The Arctic is the fastest warming part of the globe and it has long been understood that sea ice in the region plays an important role in the planet’s climate. For instance, the ice acts like a reflective surface deflecting how much sunlight is absorbed by Earth. As it disappears, more sunlight is absorbed, leading to a warmer planet. Many scientists also expect that as Arctic ice vanishes, weather across the Northern Hemisphere will be impacted, producing periods of bitter cold, punishing heat waves and disastrous floods.
With the study, the researchers wanted to delve deeper into the changes happening in this critically important part of Earth. Much of the data for the study was gathered during the largest polar expedition in history—the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate.
Comprehensive research reveals sudden increases in ice speed
During the expedition, teams of researchers took turns spending a year drifting with the sea ice aboard a massive German icebreaker in the Arctic Ocean. Watkins was there for two weeks in October 2019 to help install a network of autonomous sensors around the base camp. While there, Watkins coordinated helicopter flights to remote patches of sea ice, worked with analysts to find suitable sites for instruments and buoys, and deployed them on the ice.
Throughout the year-long expedition, 214 buoys were deployed, including 51 during Watkins’ tenure on the expedition. The study is based on GPS data transmitted from a set of 108 of the buoys that drifted from the central Arctic through the Fram Strait and into the Greenland Sea.
The major focus was on what are known as marginal ice zones in the Greenland Sea and Fram Strait, which is the transition zone between the open, ice-free ocean and the pack ice of the central Arctic.
As part of their analysis, the group also analyzed satellite measurements taken from 2003 to 2020 to put the data the buoys gathered over the year adrift into historical context. The satellite data helped confirm sharp changes in ice velocity and ice motion that could only be explained by the sea floor’s influence on the sea ice.
For instance, looking at the data from an area northeast of Svalbard, Norway, the researchers noticed the speed of the ice suddenly increased even though the wind hadn’t changed. That meant the ice was getting pushed by the ocean currents, so the team delved deeper to find where this happens and how.
They found that the sea ice speeds up where the Transpolar Drift Stream, one of the Arctic’s Ocean major currents, ends and the fast-moving East Greenland Current, which forms due to a combination of Earth’s rotation and the edge of the continental shelf on the sea floor, begins. The analysis shows how the sea ice responds to different ocean currents and that the sea floor plays a role.
“In the beginning of this journey, there was almost no difference in the drift speed across the whole set of buoys,” Watkins said. “Then there’s essentially one day where the wind died down and the ice ran into that boundary current and it just took off. It was like a one-day-to-the-next change in what was pushing the ice.”
As next steps, the researchers plan to work with model developers to help implement the data from the study into forecasts of how the ice will move and where it will end up. They also plan to further develop an ice floe tracking tool to track the motion of individual pieces of ice. The tool would help researchers see details of ice motion that are invisible to standard approaches.
“We’re hoping to understand the changing ice physics in a warming Arctic and use it to help make our models of those physics better,” Watkins said.
Along with Watkins, other researchers involved with the study included Monica Martinez Wilhelmus, an assistant professor of engineering and a senior author on the study, as well as Angela C. Bliss from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Jennifer K. Hutchings from Oregon State University.
More information:
Daniel M. Watkins et al, Evidence of Abrupt Transitions Between Sea Ice Dynamical Regimes in the East Greenland Marginal Ice Zone, Geophysical Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL103558
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New research provides unprecedented look at what influences sea ice motion in the Arctic (2023, August 16)
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
