Relationship between sea-ice motion and geostrophic wind in the Northern Hemisphere

This paper presents maps showing the relationship between sea-ice motion de rived from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor M icrowave Imager (SSM/I) imagery and the geostrophic wind in the Northern He misphere for seven winters (1991/92-1997/98). The sea-ice motion is highly correlated with the geostrophic wind except for some coastal regions. Overa ll the direction of the ice motion is nearly parallel to the wind, An obvio us contrast between seasonal ice zones and the interior of the Arctic is ob served in the speed reduction factor (ratio of ice speed to wind speed), wh ich is probably caused by the spatial variation of interval ice stress. Sur face ocean currents are also derived by subtracting the wind effect from th e! ice motion.