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Ground-based radar interferometry measures strain in sea ice

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, page 611 (2024)Cite this article

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Each winter, new sea ice forms as the polar oceans freeze, joining ice that survived the previous summer. This ice drifts and deforms, creating an ice cover with heterogeneous thickness, salinity, age and fracture history. These heterogeneities lead to spatial variability in stress and strain that influences where and when continuous ice will fracture to create open water in leads or thickened ice in pressure ridges. Observations of strain variability thus support endeavours ranging from field logistics decisions to physical sea ice modelling. However, few tools offer the necessary measurement precision (O 10–6) to quantify strain in continuous sea ice at metre-to-kilometre scales.

This minute-scale repeat interval allows observation of transient strain events such as deformation and subsequent recovery associated with impacts between ice floes. The spatial continuity and resolution of GPRI interferograms allow for detailed comparisons between spatial variability in strain and spatial heterogeneity in other ice properties, showing, for example, that young ice experiences larger average strains than ice that has survived a summer. Finally, GPRI interferograms also allow for the identification and precise localization of active fractures, supporting field safety decisions in near real time and providing insight into cycles of fracture reuse in a dynamic ice pack.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges support from the Sea Ice Dynamics Experiment (SIDEx) project (Office of Naval Research Award N0001419MP00167), and the Integrated System for Operations in Polar Seas (ISOPS) through a collaborative project between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (US Department of the Army BAA W912HZ-20-BAA-01).

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  1. Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Emily R. Fedders

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  1. Emily R. Fedders
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Correspondence to Emily R. Fedders.

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Fedders, E.R. Ground-based radar interferometry measures strain in sea ice. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 611 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00592-4

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