Sea Ice Drift Tracks for The Sea Ice Dynamic Experiment (SIDEx) Field Campaign from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Ice Trackers, Alaska, 2021

The Sea Ice Dynamics Experiment (SIDEx) was a field campaign in the Beaufort Sea during February to April 2021. The field experiment was designed to investigate the interaction of ice stress, strain, and fracture over meter (m) to kilometer (km) spatial scales as ice fractured and subsequently deformed. Observations were collected in situ at an ice camp, using autonomous buoys, and with remote sensing. Observations were collected over a variety of scales, including scales larger than the target m to km scale. This dataset is one facet of the multi-modal data package collected together in this parent archive.
This dataset contains 30 quality-controlled drift tracks from Global Positioning System (GPS) buoys deployed on sea ice within about 100 km of the SIDEx camp. GPS buoy deployments began during the camp site selection flights on 26 February 2021. Between then and March 18, buoys were deployed to monitor horizontal ice deformation on cascading scales from about 5 km to 100 km. On March 6 a 5 km radius ring of buoys was deployed about the camp. On March 13 a 10 km radius ring of buoys was placed around this. The purpose of these deployments was to monitor ice motion about the camp that could be related to stress and strain-rates observed within a smaller observation array on the ice camp floe. Buoys were also placed at several locations a greater distance away (20 to 100 km) to monitor ice deformation on larger scales.
The majority of deployments were made by releasing buoys out of a hatch in the floor of a small aircraft. Buoys 23, 24, and 34 were placed by hand. Buoy 34 was moved once during the deployment, and has two data records to reflect this.