Abstract

After providing some contextual details relevant to modelling sea ice, marginal ice zones (MIZs) and wave-ice interaction generally ― mindful of the severe impact of global climate change, I will identify the conservative and dissipative processes that cause ocean waves to be attenuated as they travel in sea ice. This will be done by showing established examples, acknowledging that the dissipative fluid mechanics involved is less well developed than the scattering that redistributes wave energy as opposed to reducing it, and that several field measurements suggest a power law relationship between wave number and frequency. Recent coastal data collected using bottom-mounted pressure sensors in the Sea of Okhotsk will also be presented, focusing on the presence of infragravity waves propagating under shore fast sea ice from MIZ -like drift ice as well as waves traversing open water, the existence of trapped barotropic edge waves and standing leaky wave modes. I will also comment on the potential occurrence of a shelf wave detected under the sea ice in the Laptev Sea.  To finish, some suggestions will be made relating to desirable target areas for future MIZ research.