An ice floe is a connected floating piece of sea ice. Its diameter relative to wavelength and its thickness affect the reflection, transmission and dissipation of surface gravity waves.
Sea-ice free drift neglects internal stress transmitted from neighboring ice. An isolated floe is governed by air and water drag forces, the Coriolis force and sea-surface tilt; steady drift also neglects acceleration.
// Target: geophysics.bigb
For stationary level water and wind stress approximated by in the wind direction, equilibrium with quadratic water drag gives . The signed angle to the right of the wind is . This neglects the floe velocity relative to the wind in the air drag; the exact relative-wind equation adds to the angle denominator.
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An ice floe is a large, flat mass of floating ice that occurs in oceans and other large bodies of water, primarily in polar regions. Ice floes can vary in size, ranging from a few square meters to several square kilometers. They are typically formed from the freezing of seawater and can be comprised of sea ice, which is formed from the freezing of ocean water.