TABLE 110. THE WIND FACTORS OF ICE DRIFTS AS A FUNCTION OF 

 CONCENTRATION (n) AND HUMMOCKING (m) OF THE ICE. 

 THE FACTOR IS MULTIPLIED BY 10'* 



LITERATURE: 62, 77, 173, 174. 



Section 141. Wind Strips of Ice 



Ice of low concentration and different shapes and sizes exhibits several more characteristic 

 features of wind drift. 



Let us assume that at the initial moment and complete absence of wind, ice floes of various 

 form and size are distributed evenly over a certain sector of the sea. When the wind begins, all the 

 floes gradually begin to move. First they all turn such that their major axes are approximately 

 perpendicular to the motion and second they begin to move at different rates of speed and in different 

 directions depending on their size , shape and depth below water level . 



Naturally, after a certain time interval the small floes, which began to move earlier (because 

 of their smaller inertia) and which move faster, gradually overtake the larger floes and either slip 

 through the intervals between the large floes or come into contact with the windward sides of the 

 large floes. Gradually, the individual free spaces between the floes become filled with the floes 

 arriving "from windward" and strips of ice form in the examined sector of the sea. These bands 

 extend in a direction approximately perpendicular to the wind direction and consist of ice floes of 

 various sizes driven together (figure 143). 



pO 



00 



V 



V 



"0 



Figure 143. The wind drift of ice strips and the 

 size distribution of floes . 



Naturally, in such strips of ice the floes will arrange themselves by size: the largest floes on 

 the leeward side of the strip, the smaller floes on the windward side. The stronger the wind, the 

 closer packed will be the individual strips. If the wind slackens and especially If the wind ceases. 



389 



