SEA-ICE AND ICEBERG OBSERVATIONS IN THE WESTERN BARENTS SEA IN 1987

A multisensor ice data acquisition programme for the western Parents S ea was carried out during three field campaigns in the mid winter and fall of 1987. The main purpose of the programme was to obtain comprehe nsive information about the ice in the area at that time. The reasonin g was that prior to any oil/gas exploration and production in the Pare nts Sea, the physical environment has to be quantitatively surveyed in order to ensure safe operations related to human safety, the regular operability and safety of the structure and protection of the environm ent. Prior to this field investigation programme in 1987 data on sea i ce and icebergs for engineering purposes for the western Barents Sea w ere meagre. The present paper highlights some of the findings with emp hasis on ice edge speeds, ice edge displacement and ice drift. For ice bergs, the paper focuses on population, size distributions and geometr ic parameters. Further, the paper discusses the production of icebergs in the Parents Sea and highlights drift and observed extreme drift sp eeds of two icebergs which were tagged with satellite positioning buoy s in 1987. Drift speeds exceeding 1 ms(-1) are often reported for shor t periods, but this study logged a maximum speed of 1.38 ms(-1) and an unprecedented mean speed of 1.13 ms(-1) during a 31 hour period with strong tailwind.