Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015A moored oceanographic array was deployed on the Beaufort Sea continental slope from August 2008-August 2009 to measure Arctic sea ice near-inertial motion in response to rapidly changing wind stress. Upward looking Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers detected sea ice and measured ice drift using a combination of bottom track and error velocity. An analysis of in-situ mooring data in conjunction with data from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis suggest that many high and low pressure systems cross the Beaufort in winter, but not all of these create a near-inertial ice response. Two unusually strong low pressure systems that passed near the array in December 2008 and February/March 2009 were accompanied by elevated levels of near-inertial kinetic energy in the ice. The analysis suggests pressure systems which have a diameter to ground track velocity ratio close to 3/4 of the local inertial period can excite a large near-inertial response in the sea ice. It is conjectured that this results from the combined effect of resonance arising from similar intrinsic timescales of the storm and the local inertial period and from stresses that are able to overcome the damping of sea ice arising from ice-mechanics and damping in the ice-ocean boundary layer. Those systems whose intrinsic times scales do not approach resonance with the local inertial period did not excite a large near- inertial response in the sea ice. From an analysis of two storms in February 2009, and two in December 2008, it appears that wind stresses associated with previous low pressure systems preconditioned the ice pack, allowing for larger near-inertial response during subsequent events
