Attenuation and directional spreading of ocean waves during a storm event in the Autumn Beaufort Sea marginal ice zone

Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2018)

We investigated the attenuation and directional spreading of large amplitude waves traveling through pancake ice. Directional spectral density is analyzed from in situ wave buoy data collected during a storm event in October 2015 in the Beaufort Sea.

Two proxy metrics for wave amplitude obtained from energy density spectra are used to track the waves as they propagate along transects through the array of buoys in the predominantly pancake ice field.

The directional content of the wave spectrum appears to decrease consistently along the wave transects, confirming that wave energy is being dissipated by the pancake ice.