Funds are provided to examine over 30 years of landfast ice records, cyclone tracks and intensity along with frequency and timing of coastal high wind conditions, nearshore pack ice drift, and coastal weather observations in two representative arctic coastal regions. The focus of the project is to examine the relevant processes driving landfast ice responses to storm-produced coastal environmental change. To understand the physics that drive the dynamic and thermodynamic processes of landfast ice, existing coastal observations and numerical modeling will be included in a detailed process analysis.
The principal investigators will merge their various data sets and knowledge to address the following questions: (1) How do changes in the storm climate affect the coastal air temperatures and wind conditions? (2) How does landfast ice, including its stability and grounding patterns, respond to coastal winds and storm activity as well as nearshore ice motion and coastal currents? (3) What are the physical connections among those factors determining long-term variations of fast ice extent and duration? (4) What impacts on landfast ice are likely under a scenario of increased storm activity?
Landfast ice is a small fraction of the total ice cover of the Arctic Ocean, yet it is of extreme importance to the indigenous polpulation's way of life. It protects the beach from erosion during extended periods of time; it provides a surface over which to travel between villages by snowmobile and sled; it is the surface from which much subsistence hunting (seal, walrus, whale) takes place. Understanding how it is and will change has importance for day-to-day safety, as well as strategic management.
