Sea ice thickness measurement with em induction instrument in Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea

Abstract

The full-scale ice trials of the first Korean icebreaker ARAON were conducted at the Arctic Ocean in July-August 2010. Sea ice concentrations of Arctic sea were 4/10 to 10/10 and sea ice thicknesses were roughly 1.0 to 3.5m. In this research, the sea ice thickness distributions at the ice floe were determined from results of drilling and electromagnetic induction instrument, EM31-MK2. Especially we measured apparent conductivity on the ice floe using the EM31-MK2 and estimated the sea ice thickness by using the empirical formula from Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory, CRREL. The results of sea ice thickness derived with the EM31-MK2 were compared to observations results and then, we suggest the new empirical formula for estimation of sea ice thickness through the analysis of apparent conductivity data. Copyright ？ 2011 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).