FREEZE-UP PROCESSES

Clients: Joint Industry Study

Understanding the freeze-up season is essential for the safe and cost-effective development of offshore oil and gas prospects in Arctic seas.  Freeze-up processes that exert significant impacts on the design, construction, and operation of coastal and offshore structures include the following:

  • The progressive growth and thickening of the first-year ice

  • The development and extent of the landfast ice zone

  • The location and characteristics of the shear zone that separates the landfast ice from the perennial pack ice

  • Nearshore invasions of multi-year ice features (floes and ridges)

  • Rapid ice movements in response to storms

Starting in 2009, Coastal Frontiers personnel in association with Dr. Kennon Vaudrey have studied freeze-up processes in the Alaskan Beaufort and Chukchi Seas using a combination of remote sensing and on-site observations. Key aspects of these Joint-Industry investigations are summarized below:

KEY ASPECTS

  • Acquisition and analysis of publicly-available meteorological data, ice charts and satellite imagery

  • Acquisition and analysis of proprietary RADARSAT II images

  • Fixed-wing and helicopter-based reconnaissance missions to investigate large-scale features noted on satellite imagery and small-scale features beneath the resolution of the satellite imagery

  • Analysis of the nature and timing of freeze-up processes, including an assessment of inter-annual variations as well as long-term trends indicative of a changing Arctic climate