Characteristics of Sea Ice and Iceberg Drift Simulations in the Northwestern Barents Sea

Ice drift data collected during cruises of the RV Lance in the North-West Barents Sea (region to the North-East from the Hopen Island and Spitsbergenbanken) are analyzed and compared. All measurements were performed when the RV Lance was moored to the drifting floe. The ship's navigational system provided GPS data and data on the pitch, roll, heading and heave of the ship with a sampling interval of 1 sec. Furthermore, the speed of the sea currents was measured with an ADCP mounted on the ship bottom, and CTD profiles were measured from the drifting ice and the ship board. Numerical simulations are performed to study the dependence of iceberg drift trajectories from the iceberg drafts and wind drag coefficients when the sea current velocities coincide with measured currents. The influence of the water eddy viscosity on the iceberg drift is analyzed using explicit solution describing the Ekman current.