A SENSITIVITY METHOD FOR ICE FLOE TRAJECTORY CALCULATIONS

The simulation of an ice floe trajectory normally involves the solving of a physically based governing equation in order to determine the temporal variation of ice floe velocities. As part of this calculation, a sensitivity analysis is undertaken to determine the response of the solution to variations in the system or input parameters. In this paper, a versatile sensitivity method is described. This method is based on the adjoint operator technique which involves the calculation of an adjoint state variable. The required sensitivities are determined from the temporal variation of this ajdoint state variable and the ice velocity. The results from a comparison between a numerical and an analytical solution for a one-dimensional free drift ice floe example are presented. An example dealing with the sensitivity of the distance between a drilling location and an ice floe trajectory to changes in the input parameters is also discussed.