Assess the link between local sea-ice drift velocity and floe–floe collision occurrence

Ascertain whether a robust relationship exists between the local sea-ice drift velocity of an individual floe (as measured by 1 Hz GPS during 20-minute intervals) and the presence or absence of wave-induced floe–floe collision events detected in inertial motion unit acceleration data in the Marginal Ice Zone.

Background

The authors analyze their buoy’s 1 Hz GPS drift data alongside identified collision events, testing for a simple correlation between drift velocity and collision occurrence. Their dataset does not reveal a clear relation, suggesting that either the correlation is weak or non-local, or that larger datasets are needed.

They propose that larger-scale ice-sheet properties (e.g., convergence/divergence patterns) may modulate collisions, but emphasize that further data and analysis are required to evaluate this hypothesis and clarify drivers of collision occurrence.