Abstract
Moored instruments, consisting of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) to measure the water and ice velocities, and Ice Profiling Sonars (IPSs) to measure ice drafts, were deployed along the Northumberland Strait, in line with one of the bridge piers during the winter of 2000. The instruments were deployed in part to support measurements of ice forces on bridge piers being collected by the National Research Council. Current and wind forcing move the mobile pack ice at the bridge. Tidal currents moved the ice back and forth past the bridge piers while a mean ice drift of 10-15cm/s continually moved the pack ice to the southeast. Ice draft observations demonstrated that the ice regime at the bridge was dominated by ice rubble with keel-like events as deep as 8 meters. Furthermore, the great variability in ice draft distributions indicates that the pack ice properties were more dependent on the dynamic processes the pack ice had experienced rather than simply the thermodynamic ice growth process.