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Evaluation of Ice Biases in a Global Coupled (0.4 degrees) Ocean/Sea Ice-Model

Evaluation of Ice Biases in a Global Coupled (0.4 degrees) Ocean/Sea Ice-Model

Detelina Ivanova (1,2), Julie McClean (1,2), Elizabeth Hunke (3), Don Stark (4)

(1) Scripps Institution of Oceanography
(2) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(3) Los Alamos National Laboratory
(4) National Center for Atmospheric Research

Model biases in a moderately fine-resolution (0.4 degrees, 40 vertical levels), global coupled ice-ocean model are evaluated by statistical comparisons with available observational data sets. The model consists of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Parallel Ocean Program (POP) and the thermodynamic-dynamic sea ice model known as CICE. The model simulation was run for 23 years (1979-2002), largely forced with high-frequency National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) atmospheric fluxes. Following a decade-long spin-up of the ice model, the fidelity of the ice extent, ice thickness, and ice drift distributions is examined. The model realistically simulates the space and time distributions of the global sea ice cover concentration, thickness and drift. The total ice area and extent agree well with Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) satellite data especially in the winter season in the Arctic and summer season in the Antarctic; overall the model quantities are larger by about 10% in the Arctic and 17-20% in the Antarctic suggesting that the model is reproducing well the observed seasonal cycles of ice extent and area. In the Weddell Sea, simulated ice thickness is compared with moored upward looking sonar data. At the locations of the open-ocean moorings, the agreement is good but it is less accurate near to the Weddell Peninsula. Statistics of ice drifting buoy observations agree well with temporally and spatially co-located simulated ice drifts both in terms of speed and direction. The model ice drift speed distribution tends to be dominated by slower speed ranges than that of the observations.