X-ray micro-tomographic imaging and modelling of saline ice properties in concrete frost salt scaling experiments

Frost salt scaling of concrete is related to cyclic freezing and melting of a few millimeter thick deicer solution on the surface of the concrete. It is almost absent when pure water is freezing and reaches a maximum at a so-called pessimum concentration that for NaCl is around 3%. Different mechanisms have been suggested to explain this...

Navigating Arctic Waters: A Summary of Ship Activities and Ice-Ship Interactions in Alaskan Waters

Climate change is affecting global weather patterns, but nowhere is this more apparent than in the Arctic. The Arctic is an extreme environment going through rapid climate change, resulting in the opening of new shipping lanes and leading to less multiyear ice formation. This increases the risk of collision with the sea ice making it difficult...

The implementation of Arctic ice management: Counteracting the annual Arctic sea ice loss by distributing sea water on top of sea ice

The Arctic is warming more rapidly than other latitudes, which can result in the release of additional greenhouse gasses, global sea level rise and increase in extreme weather events. Additionally, this causes the rapid decline of sea ice and an ice free Arctic might occur during the summer in the 2040s. The decreasing sea...

Tidal dissipation from free drift sea ice in the Barents Sea assessed using GNSS beacon observations

One of the major challenges facing global hydrodynamic tidal models is the modelling of the interaction between sea ice and tides in high-latitude waters. Recent studies have shown strong seasonal correlation between sea ice and tides. Hence, it is important to accurately model the effect of sea ice in a tidal model. Presence of sea ice leads...

Wind-Wave Attenuation in Arctic Sea Ice: A Discussion of Remote Sensing Capabilities

Wind-generated waves strongly interact with sea ice and impact air-sea exchanges, operations at sea, and marine life. Unfortunately, the dissipation of wave energy is not well quantified and its possible effect on upper ocean mixing and ice drift is still mysterious. As the Arctic is opening up and wave energy increases, the limited amount of...

An experimental comparison of thermal-mechanical properties of freshwater and saline ice in Arctic environments

Thermal ice pressure is one of the eight ice loads to consider for the support structure design of bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines defined by international standard IEC 61400031. Temperature changes in ice drive its deformation and cause structures restricting expansion to experience loading. The effective coefficient of thermal expansion ...

Influence of Arctic sea-ice loss on the Greenland ice sheet climate

The Arctic is the region on Earth that is warming the fastest. At the same time, Arctic sea ice is reducing while the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerated pace. Here, we study the seasonal impact of reduced Arctic sea ice on GrIS surface mass balance (SMB), using the Community Earth System Model version 2.1 (CESM2),...

Estimation of wintertime Arctic sea ice thickness with satellite scatterometers

Accurate information on Arctic sea ice thickness has been historically limited both spatially and temporally to spare submarine sonar measurements until the advent of satellite altimeters such as ICEsat (operating from 2002 to 2008) and CryoSat-2 (operating from 2011 to present day). This study aims to use the historical record of normalized...

High resolution tidal model of Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Baffin and Hudson Bay

Ice induced variability of tides in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including Baffin Bay and Hudson Strait/Hudson Bay system, was studied by means of a new high resolution tidal model. Here we show that the seasonal variations of the tidal constants are significant in the major part of the domain. Month to month changes of the tidal phases...

Sea ice subjected to cyclic compression: Laboratory experiments and a dislocation based model

Wave or vehicular action on an ice sheet as well as structural vibrations and thermally induced loading cause cyclic loading on an ice sheet. To better understand the effects of cyclic loading on the strength of sea ice, cyclic loading tests have been conducted at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). In addition, the corresponding ice...

Connection of future Arctic sea ice retreat with regional climate change and increased melting over Greenland

Today’s climate warming is unequivocal. Evidence from observations and satellite records show that Arctic Ocean is losing its summer sea ice cover with a rapid pace and is dominated by young and thinner ice. The ice loss has already caused heating of the overlying atmosphere. At the same time, the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) surface mass balance...

Impact of climate change on trans-arctic navigation; a Northern Sea Route case study

This thesis reviews Arctic development, and industrial responses to changing climate-driven, geospatial, and economic environments. First, the optimization of trans-arctic navigation was addressed in light of the global warming impact on Arctic sea ice. In this regard, a central consideration was given to the Northern Sea Route (NSR), such that...

Scaling-Up Eutectic Freeze Crystallization

A novel crystallization technology, Eutectic Freeze Crystallization (EFC) has been investigated and further developed in this thesis work. EFC operates around the eutectic temperature and composition of aqueous solutions and can be used for recovery of (valuable) dissolved salts (and/or or acids) and water from a wide variety of aqueous process...

Arctic Offshore Workability: Development and innovative imaging of a probabilistic climatology regarding Arctic sea ice and air temperatures

Studies underscore the significant reserve potential of the Arctic region: an estimated 25 percent of potential oil and gas reserves, onshore and offshore, is believed to be located in the Northern Hemispheres Arctic region. Although these areas already have been under consideration for over 30 years, technical difficulties have put a threshold...