Lake Ice Cover Deflection Induced by Moving Vehicles: Comparing Theoretical Results with Satellite Observations

Ice roads are essential to the livelihood of several communities and the operations of several industries in Canada’s North. Safe yet maximized exploitation of such roads is paramount to all stakeholders. Through a state-of-the-art remote sensing technology, ice road deformations because of transportation activities over a lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada have been recently measured. In the present paper, the dynamic response of the ice road is theoretically modelled and model results were compared with the remotely-sensed deformations. Comparisons are for two different cases of a slow truck whose motion does not create any significant waves in the ice cover, and a fast truck whose motion creates wave patterns in the ice cover. Remotely-sensed and theoretical deformations, for both cases, compare well. It is then concluded that both the theoretical model and the satellite-derived product could assist in safety and operations improvements of ice roads on lakes. Some preliminary conclusions that may help guide ice road operations are given.