Abstract Analysis of field measurements of ocean surface wave activity in the marginal ice
zone, from campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic and over a range of different ice conditions,
shows the wave attenuation rate with respect to distance has a power law dependence on
the frequency with order between two and four. With this backdrop, the attenuation‐
frequency power law dependencies given by three dispersion relation models are obtained
under the assumptions of weak attenuation, negligible deviation of the wave number from …

The marginal ice zone () is the region of broken sea ice that forms at the bound-32 ary of the
open and ice-covered oceans, and is the region in which the ice cover is strongly 33 affected
by ocean surface waves and other open ocean processes. Especially important 34 is wave-
induced breakup of large ice floes into smaller floes [Asplin et al., 2012; Kohout 35 et al.,
2015; Collins et al., 2015]. Further, waves impact the ice cover by causing floes 36 to collide
[Martin and Becker, 1987; Yiew et al., 2017], by increasing melt rates due to 37 turbulence …