Dispersion of sea ice in the Bering Sea

The dispersion of sea ice in the Bering Sea is analyzed in terms of the changes in separation between pairs of ice floes. The statistics of these changes depend on the separation itself and on the time interval over which the changes are measured. Rather than being constant, as in the case of molecular or Fickian diffusion, the diffusivity increases according to the 1.8 power of the separation. For short times the diffusivity is proportional to time. For times greater than 3 days the diffusivity appears to approach a constant value for any particular separation. Comparison with other data shows that the ice floe diffusivity is about an order of magnitude smaller than the diffusivity at the surface of the temperate ocean and about an order greater than the diffusivity of sea ice in the Beaufort Sea.