Toward a new elastic–decohesive model of Arctic sea ice

This paper argues for a new constitutive model, an elastic–decohesive model for sea ice. The model is motivated by examining satellite observations of the Arctic processed to show ice deformation in the form of divergence, shear and vorticity. The model is implemented numerically in the material-point method and used to predict motion and deformation of sea ice by simulating a region of the Beaufort Sea. The model is able to capture the qualitative and statistical behavior of localized deformation seen in the observations.