Evaluation of simulated sea-ice concentrations from sea-ice/ocean models using satellite data and polynya classification methods

Adams, S., Willmes, S., Heinemann, G., Rozman, P., Timmermann, R. and Schroeder, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2351-4306 (2011) Evaluation of simulated sea-ice concentrations from sea-ice/ocean models using satellite data and polynya classification methods. Polar Research, 30. 7124. ISSN 1751-8369 doi: 10.3402/polar.v30i0.7124

Abstract/Summary

Sea-ice concentrations in the Laptev Sea simulated by the coupled North Atlantic-Arctic Ocean-Sea-Ice Model and Finite Element Sea-Ice Ocean Model are evaluated using sea-ice concentrations from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System satellite data and a polynya classification method for winter 2007/08. While developed to simulate largescale sea-ice conditions, both models are analysed here in terms of polynya simulation. The main modification of both models in this study is the implementation of a landfast-ice mask. Simulated sea-ice fields from different model runs are compared with emphasis placed on the impact of this prescribed landfast-ice mask. We demonstrate that sea-ice models are not able to simulate flaw polynyas realistically when used without fast-ice description. Our investigations indicate that without landfast ice and with coarse horizontal resolution the models overestimate the fraction of open water in the polynya. This is not because a realistic polynya appears but due to a larger-scale reduction of ice concentrations and smoothed ice-concentration fields. After implementation of a landfast-ice mask, the polynya location is realistically simulated but the total open-water area is still overestimated in most cases. The study shows that the fast-ice parameterization is essential for model improvements. However, further improvements are necessary in order to progress from the simulation of large-scale features in the Arctic towards a more detailed simulation of smaller-scaled features (here polynyas) in an Arctic shelf sea.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/54185
Identification Number/DOI	10.3402/polar.v30i0.7124
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items
Publisher	Co-Action Publishing
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