Canadian Ice Service tracking icebergs from Ellesmere in western Arctic

The Canadian Ice Service is tracking icebergs to monitor and predict drifting patterns in the western Arctic, according to one of its ice analysts.

Last week, the organization — a branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) — dropped beacons from a Hercules aircraft onto icebergs in the Beaufort Sea. 

Adrienne White, an ice analyst with the Canadian Ice Service, said that it's common practice to track icebergs in the eastern Arctic. 

In this case, the icebergs being monitored in the Western Arctic are castaways from the Milne ice shelf on the northwest coast of Ellesmere Island — an area that was historically permanently covered in ice.

Over the past century Ellesmere Island has begun to break up, explained White, and that process has accelerated within the last decade. 

The warming climate has caused an increase in floating icebergs breaking off of stable structures, as well as more open water along the northern coastline. 

"We're having a lot more change to these large floating ice structures that are no longer stable in our current climate," White said, adding that it could mean risk for ships or coastal communities nearby.

By dropping beacons, White said she and her colleagues at ECCC will be able to monitor the drifting ice. 

The sensor data will provide updates on the icebergs' coordinates every hour for the next two years. 

White said her colleagues are also deploying a different kind of sensor into the Beaufort Sea to record air temperatures, sea surface temperatures and pressure. 

That meteorological data is used in global climate modelling to forecast weather worldwide.