Dispersion of waves propagating in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean

Abstract

The Arctic Ocean was modeled as an ice–seawater–sediment system, where the ice cover and seawater were assumed to be inhomogeneous solid and liquid, respectively, while the sediment was assumed to be homogeneous liquid. Transfer matrixes relating the displacements and stresses at the lower surface and those at the upper surface for a thin solid layer, and a thin liquid layer were derived. Furthermore, a dispersion equation for waves propagating in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean was derived using the transfer matrix technique. The phase- and group-velocity dispersion curves were obtained by solving the dispersion equation numerically. The results show that the dispersion curves for the Arctic Ocean with ice cover are much more complex than those without ice cover. Except for the new mode, the phase-velocity curve for the n-th (n > 2) mode exhibited a slight distortion, which caused a sharp peak in the group-velocity curve. These peak values, which depend on the order of the mode, may be significantly higher than the speed of sound in seawater. The variation of the ice cover thickness had significant influence on the dispersion curves of the first and second modes. Moreover, the influence of the seawater depth on the dispersion curves were investigated.