ASL Measures Landfast Ice Movement
Devon Canada Corporation recently asked B, Wright & Associates of Calgary, Alberta, Canada to investigate landfast ice movements in its Beaufort Sea lease areas.
As part of the ensuing study, ASL Environmental Sciences of Sidney, B.C. was contracted to provide a number of GPS/Argos ice beacons for on-ice deployment as well as an analysis of the resultant data.
These data showed evidence of ice movements with amplitudes as large as a few meters and sometimes more. Comparison with data acquired from both satellite imagery and ASL Ice Profilers deployed further offshore in the mobile pack ice zone showed close relationships between landfast ice displacements and large-scale movements of the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea.
Recognition of these relationships may lead to future capabilities for prediction of landfast ice movement, as an important input to on-ice operations.
