Regime characteristics and patterns of the sea ice drift on the shelf at Magadan in the Okhotsk Sea

Abstract

The sea ice characteristics and drift patterns are considered for the Okhotsk Sea shelf at Magadan on retrospective data of the ice observations and satellite images. Spatial heterogeneity of the sea ice parameters and its drift is shown. Phases of the sea ice seasonal variation in this area could differ from year to year in 10-20 days on spatial scale of hundreds kilometers and the ice age, form and concentration vary in 10-50 % within the seasonal cycle. The ice drift velocity averaged for 6 or 10 days varied from 1.3 to 12.5 km/day in the winter of 2015; the highest velocity 0.75 m/s was registered on March 12 by comparing two satellite images with time interval of 110 min.