NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Evaluation of Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Simulated by Arctic Ocean Model Intercomparison Project ModelsSix Arctic Ocean Model Intercomparison Project model simulations are compared with estimates of sea ice thickness derived from pan-Arctic satellite freeboard measurements (2004-2008); airborne electromagnetic measurements (2001-2009); ice draft data from moored instruments in Fram Strait, the Greenland Sea, and the Beaufort Sea (1992-2008) and from submarines (1975-2000); and drill hole data from the Arctic basin, Laptev, and East Siberian marginal seas (1982-1986) and coastal stations (1998-2009). Despite an assessment of six models that differ in numerical methods, resolution, domain, forcing, and boundary conditions, the models generally overestimate the thickness of measured ice thinner than approximately 2 mand underestimate the thickness of ice measured thicker than about approximately 2m. In the regions of flat immobile landfast ice (shallow Siberian Seas with depths less than 25-30 m), the models generally overestimate both the total observed sea ice thickness and rates of September and October ice growth from observations by more than 4 times and more than one standard deviation, respectively. The models do not reproduce conditions of fast ice formation and growth. Instead, the modeled fast ice is replaced with pack ice which drifts, generating ridges of increasing ice thickness, in addition to thermodynamic ice growth. Considering all observational data sets, the better correlations and smaller differences from observations are from the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II and Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System models.
Document ID
20140008934
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Johnson, Mark
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Proshuntinsky, Andrew
(Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. MA, United States)
Aksenov, Yevgeny
(Southampton Univ. United Kingdom)
Nguyen, An T.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Lindsay, Ron
(Washington Univ. Seattle, WA, United States)
Haas, Christian
(Alberta Univ. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Zhang, Jinlun
(Washington Univ. Seattle, WA, United States)
Diansky, Nikolay
(Academy of Sciences (Russia) Moscow, Russian Federation)
Kwok, Ron
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Maslowski, Wieslaw
(Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA, United States)
Hakkinen, Sirpa
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Ashik, Igor
(Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Inst. Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
De Cuevas, Beverly
(Southampton Univ. United Kingdom)
Date Acquired
July 9, 2014
Publication Date
August 1, 2012
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Volume: 117
Issue: C8
Subject Category
Oceanography
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN9319
Funding Number(s)
OTHER: 09-05-00266
OTHER: ARC0908769
OTHER: ARC-0804010
OTHER: ARC-0804180
OTHER: ARC080789
OTHER: ARC-0805141
OTHER: 09-05-01231
OTHER: ARC-0804010
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
sea ice
Arctic Ocean
models
No Preview Available