Correlated Energy Exchange in Drifting Sea Ice

The ice floe speed variations were monitored at the research camp North Pole 35 established on the Arctic ice pack in 2008. A three-month time series of measured speed values was used for determining changes in the kinetic energy of the drifting ice floe. The constructed energy distributions were analyzed by methods of nonextensive statistical mechanics based on the Tsallis statistics for open nonequilibrium systems, such as tectonic formations and drifting sea ice. The nonextensivity means the nonadditivity of externally induced energy changes in multicomponent systems due to dynamic interrelation of components having no structural links. The Tsallis formalism gives one an opportunity to assess the correlation between ice floe motions through a specific parameter, the so-called parameter of nonextensivity. This formalistic assessment of the actual state of drifting pack allows one to forecast some important trends in sea ice behavior, because the level of correlated dynamics determines conditions for extended mechanical perturbations in ice pack. In this work, we revealed temporal fluctuations of the parameter of nonextensivity and observed its maximum value before a large-scale sea ice fragmentation (faulting) of consolidated sea ice. The correlation was not detected in fragmented sea ice where long-range interactions are weakened.