Measuring sea ice thickness: Exploring the feasibility of echo sounders for close-range determination of sea ice draft

Ellen Werner*

*Corresponding author for this work

Abstract

This work explores the potential of using commercial single-beam echo sounders for accurate thickness determination of sea ice. Therefore, an own sensor system has been developed which allows to study the performance of different echo sounders monitoring sea ice under varying environmental conditions in a laboratory setup. The sensor system consists of three single-beam echo sounders operating at different frequencies (115 kHz, 200 kHz, 500 kHz), a CTD probe measuring physical water properties and instruments frozen in the ice measuring temperature and salinity. Different experiments were conducted observing the sea ice state while performing acoustic range determinations. Subsequent, statistical measures were calculated to evaluate the accuracy of inferred sea ice draft. The study concludes that a draft accuracy of ±0.5 cm is reached by the implemented method under specific conditions and that the acoustic approach for determining sea ice draft thickness is applicable using frequencies of 115 kHz or 200 kHz.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12-16
Number of pages5
JournalHydrographische Nachrichten
Issue number125
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2023

Keywords

  • sea ice draft
  • SBES
  • ULS – upward looking sonar
  • acoustic properties
  • accuracy evaluation

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