Coastal landfast ice is vulnerable to increased storm activity, a distinct signal of arctic environmental change. Landfast ice defines arctic coastlines; it is a surface for travel and platform for hunting, and offers protection from coastal erosion and storm damage. The absence of landfast ice would have a fundamental impact on the coastal resources and the residents who depend on them, and also on the freshwater and biogeochemical cycling that affect the whole arctic system. Mounting evidence indicates significant recent changes in the arctic coastal environment: reduced landfast ice cover, warmer air temperatures, and increased storm activity.

This project is 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 is to study 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, the project wbaill conduct a detailed process analysis by incorporating coastal observations off Barrow, Alaska and a high-resolution coastal ice-ocean simulations coupled with a Polar WRF model.

This project is supported by the Nation Science Foundation, Arctic Natural Science Program.

 

 

 

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This project is supported by the Nation Science Foundation, Arctic Natural Science Program.