Essential Site Maintenance: Authorea-powered sites will be updated circa 15:00-17:00 Eastern on Tuesday 5 November.
There should be no interruption to normal services, but please contact us at [email protected] in case you face any issues.

loading page

Landfast ice and coastal wave exposure in northern Alaska
  • +3
  • Lucia Hosekova,
  • Emily Eidam,
  • Gleb panteleev,
  • Luc Rainville,
  • Rogers Erick,
  • Jim Thomson
Lucia Hosekova
Applied Physics Laboratory
Author Profile
Emily Eidam
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Author Profile
Gleb panteleev
United States Naval Research Laboratory
Author Profile
Luc Rainville
University of Washington
Author Profile
Rogers Erick
NRL Stennis
Author Profile
Jim Thomson
University of Washington

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile

Abstract

Observations of ocean surface waves at three sites along the northern coast of Alaska show a strong coupling with seasonal sea ice patterns. In the winter, ice cover is complete, and waves are absent. In the spring and early summer, sea ice retreats regionally, but landfast ice persists near the coast. The landfast ice completely attenuates waves formed farther offshore in the open water, causing up to two-month delay in the onset of waves nearshore. In autumn, landfast ice begins to reform, though the wave attenuation is only partial due to lower ice thickness compared to spring. The annual cycle in the observations is reproduced by the ERA5 reanalysis product, but the product does not resolve landfast ice. The resulting ERA5 bias in coastal wave exposure can be corrected by applying a higher resolution ice mask, and this has a significant effect on the long-term trends inferred from ERA5.
28 Nov 2021Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 48 issue 22. 10.1029/2021GL095103