1. Analysis of Sea Ice Cover Sensitivity in Global Climate Model
- Author
-
Valeri Parhomenko
- Subjects
Arctic sea ice decline ,geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,lcsh:Computer engineering. Computer hardware ,global climate model ,lcsh:TK7885-7895 ,General Medicine ,Arctic ice pack ,arctic sea ice ,Ice-sheet model ,Climatology ,Sea ice thickness ,Sea ice ,Cryosphere ,Environmental science ,Climate model ,numerical experiments ,lcsh:Mechanics of engineering. Applied mechanics ,lcsh:TA349-359 ,Sea ice concentration - Abstract
The paper presents joint calculations using a 3D atmospheric general circulation model, an ocean model, and a sea ice evolution model. The purpose of the work is to analyze a seasonal and annual evolution of sea ice, long-term variability of a model ice cover, and its sensitivity to some parameters of model as well to define atmosphere-ice-ocean interaction.Results of 100 years simulations of Arctic basin sea ice evolution are analyzed. There are significant (about 0.5 m) inter-annual fluctuations of an ice cover.The ice - atmosphere sensible heat flux reduced by 10% leads to the growth of average sea ice thickness within the limits of 0.05 m – 0.1 m. However in separate spatial points the thickness decreases up to 0.5 m. An analysis of the seasonably changing average ice thickness with decreasing, as compared to the basic variant by 0.05 of clear sea ice albedo and that of snow shows the ice thickness reduction in a range from 0.2 m up to 0.6 m, and the change maximum falls for the summer season of intensive melting. The spatial distribution of ice thickness changes shows, that on the large part of the Arctic Ocean there was a reduction of ice thickness down to 1 m. However, there is also an area of some increase of the ice layer basically in a range up to 0.2 m (Beaufort Sea). The 0.05 decrease of sea ice snow albedo leads to reduction of average ice thickness approximately by 0.2 m, and this value slightly depends on a season. In the following experiment the ocean – ice thermal interaction influence on the ice cover is estimated. It is carried out by increase of a heat flux from ocean to the bottom surface of sea ice by 2 W/sq. m in comparison with base variant. The analysis demonstrates, that the average ice thickness reduces in a range from 0.2 m to 0.35 m. There are small seasonal changes of this value.The numerical experiments results have shown, that an ice cover and its seasonal evolution rather strongly depend on varied parameters. The spatial and seasonal structure of changes has rather complex non-uniform character. There are great areas of changes with opposite signs. This is due to nonlinear behavior of feedback and interactions in model system including an atmosphere, a sea ice, and an ocean.
- Published
- 2014