Decadal variability of Arctic sea ice in the Canada Basin

Abstract:

A series of spring Arctic flight campaigns surveying a region over the Canada Basin, from 2006 to 2015, has resulted in unique observations that reveal new details of sea ice leads and freeboard evolution, during a decade of significant interannual variability in the Arctic ice cover. The series began in 2006 with a joint NASA/NOAA airborne altimetry campaign over a 1300 km survey line northwest of the Canadian Archipelago extending into the northern Beaufort Sea. Operation IceBridge (OIB) took up this flight line again in 2009 and repeated it annually through 2012. Additional observations have been collected along a 1000+ km flight line, in the southern Canada Basin and eastern Beaufort Sea, between 2009 and 2015.

Here we examine laser altimetry, snow radar data, and high-resolution visible imagery to better understand the frequency and distribution of leads and ice floes, the characteristics of first- and multi-year ice types in the survey region, and their impact on the derivation and accuracy of sea ice freeboard. We demonstrate a novel lead detection methodology that depends only upon laser altimeter measurements, and we quantify the impact of low lead frequencies on estimates of instantaneous sea surface height. The analysis reveals a variable springtime freeboard north of 78° N, significantly reduced after 2006, and a notable lead outbreak over the Canada Basin during 2010.