Abstract
This chapter presents the free drift solution of sea ice dynamics. It is based on the momentum equation only. There is no internal stress, and the ice conservation law is not normally solved since it would eventually lead to an unrealistic ice-state field. The solution describes the velocity at one point or along the path of one ice floe, easily obtained for both steady state (Section 6.1) and unsteady (Section 6.2) situations. The free drift case is analogous to the pure Ekman drift case in ocean dynamics.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Leppäranta, M. (2011). Free drift. In: The Drift of Sea Ice. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04683-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04683-4_6
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04682-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04683-4
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