Turbulent kinetic energy dissipation from colliding ice floes

TL;DR

This study investigates the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation caused by colliding ice floes through large-scale experiments, providing new data crucial for improving sea ice and climate models.

Contribution

It presents the first direct measurements of TKE dissipation in colliding ice floes, quantifying energy transfer mechanisms in sea ice dynamics.

Findings

TKE spectra exhibit an inertial subrange following a -5/3 power law.

TKE dissipation rate decreases exponentially with depth.

Approximately 37% of input power is dissipated in turbulence, confirming turbulence as a key energy dissipation mechanism.

Abstract

Increased knowledge about wave attenuation processes in sea ice, and hence atmosphere-wave-ice-ocean energy transfer, is necessary to improve sea ice dynamics models used for climate modeling and offshore applications. The aim of this study is to generate such much needed data by investigating colliding ice floes dynamics in a large-scale experiment and directly measuring and quantifying the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). The field work was carried out at Van Mijen Fjord on Svalbard, where a 3x4 m ice floe was sawed out in the fast ice. Wave motion was simulated by pulling the ice floe back and forth in an oscillatory manner in a 4x6 m pool, using two electrical winches. Ice floe motion was measured with a range meter and accelerometers, and the water turbulence was measured acoustically with an acoustic Doppler current profiler and optically with a remotely operated vehicle and bubbles as tracers. TKE frequency spectra were found to contain an inertial subrange where energy was cascading at a rate proportional to the -5/3 power law. The TKE dissipation rate was found to decrease exponentially with depth. The total TKE dissipation rate was estimated by assuming that turbulence was induced over an area corresponding to the surface of the floe. The results suggest that approximately 37% and 8% of the input power from the winches was dissipated in turbulence and absorbed in the collisions, respectively, which experimentally confirms that energy dissipation by induced turbulent water motion is an important mechanism for colliding ice floe fields.