Long-term field tracking of icebergs in the eastern Canadian Arctic

Tidewater glaciers are those which terminate into the ocean and drain a significant proportion of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice masses of the Canadian Arctic, providing the primary source of icebergs in Canadian waters. Once calved, there remains uncertainty concerning the processes controlling their drift. This study uses a multi-year dataset (2011–2019) of in situ iceberg observations to characterize drift on a regional scale throughout Baffin Bay. We identify common grounding areas and quantify the influence of wind, ocean, and tidal currents using ERA5 climate reanalysis, global ocean reanalysis and simulations, and WebTide Tidal Prediction models. Icebergs in the Eastern Canadian Arctic consistently drifted southeast along the east coast of Baffin Island. We evaluate the assumption that icebergs drift at 2% of the wind speed and determine that this rule does not apply for the majority of icebergs in this study, which often exceeded 2% of the wind speed, in particular at low wind speeds. The highest speeds occurred during the winter and spring, reaching up to 2.3 m s −1 in Nares Strait. Our analysis indicates that iceberg drift patterns are controlled by a combination of local conditions including short-term wind events, ocean surface currents, and semi-diurnal tidal oscillations.