Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations
Abstract Sea ice thickness (SIT), which is a crucial and sensitive indicator of climate change in the Antarctic, has a substantial impact on atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean interactions. Despite the slight thinning in SIT and reduction in sea ice volume (SIV) in the Antarctic in the recent decade, challeng...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725/pdf |
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crioppubl:10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 2024-06-02T07:57:09+00:00 Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations Hou, Yaqi Nie, Yafei Min, Chao Shu, Qi Luo, Hao Liu, Jiping Yang, Qinghua National Key Research and Development Program of China National Natural Science Foundation of China the fundamental research funds for the Norges Forskningsråd Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725/pdf unknown IOP Publishing http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining Environmental Research Letters volume 19, issue 1, page 014067 ISSN 1748-9326 journal-article 2024 crioppubl https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 2024-05-07T14:03:19Z Abstract Sea ice thickness (SIT), which is a crucial and sensitive indicator of climate change in the Antarctic, has a substantial impact on atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean interactions. Despite the slight thinning in SIT and reduction in sea ice volume (SIV) in the Antarctic in the recent decade, challenges remain in quantifying their changes, primarily because of the limited availability of high-quality long-term observational data. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately simulate Antarctic SIT and to assess the SIT simulation capability of state-of-the-art climate models. In this study, we evaluated historical simulations of SIT by 51 climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) using Envisat (ES) and CryoSat-2 (CS2) observations. Results revealed that most models can capture the seasonal cycles in SIV and that the CMIP6 multimodel mean (MMM) can reproduce the increasing and decreasing trends in the SIV anomaly based on ES and CS2 data, although the magnitudes of the trends in the SIV anomaly are underestimated. Additionally, the intermodel spread in simulations of SIT and SIV was found to be reduced (by 43%) from CMIP5 to CMIP6. Nevertheless, based on the CMIP6 MMM, substantial underestimations in SIV of 57.52% and 59.66% were found compared to those derived from ES and CS2 observations, respectively. The most notable underestimation in SIT was located in the sea ice deformation zone surrounding the northwestern Weddell Sea, coastal areas of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, and the eastern Ross Sea. The substantial bias in the simulated SIT might result from deficiencies in simulating critical physical processes such as ocean heat transport, dynamic sea ice processes, and sea ice-ocean interactions. Therefore, increasing the model resolution and improving the representation of sea ice dynamics and the physical processes controlling sea ice-ocean interactions are essential for improving the accuracy of Antarctic sea ice simulation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ross Sea Sea ice Weddell Sea IOP Publishing Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea Environmental Research Letters |
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description |
Abstract Sea ice thickness (SIT), which is a crucial and sensitive indicator of climate change in the Antarctic, has a substantial impact on atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean interactions. Despite the slight thinning in SIT and reduction in sea ice volume (SIV) in the Antarctic in the recent decade, challenges remain in quantifying their changes, primarily because of the limited availability of high-quality long-term observational data. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately simulate Antarctic SIT and to assess the SIT simulation capability of state-of-the-art climate models. In this study, we evaluated historical simulations of SIT by 51 climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) using Envisat (ES) and CryoSat-2 (CS2) observations. Results revealed that most models can capture the seasonal cycles in SIV and that the CMIP6 multimodel mean (MMM) can reproduce the increasing and decreasing trends in the SIV anomaly based on ES and CS2 data, although the magnitudes of the trends in the SIV anomaly are underestimated. Additionally, the intermodel spread in simulations of SIT and SIV was found to be reduced (by 43%) from CMIP5 to CMIP6. Nevertheless, based on the CMIP6 MMM, substantial underestimations in SIV of 57.52% and 59.66% were found compared to those derived from ES and CS2 observations, respectively. The most notable underestimation in SIT was located in the sea ice deformation zone surrounding the northwestern Weddell Sea, coastal areas of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, and the eastern Ross Sea. The substantial bias in the simulated SIT might result from deficiencies in simulating critical physical processes such as ocean heat transport, dynamic sea ice processes, and sea ice-ocean interactions. Therefore, increasing the model resolution and improving the representation of sea ice dynamics and the physical processes controlling sea ice-ocean interactions are essential for improving the accuracy of Antarctic sea ice simulation. |
author2 |
National Key Research and Development Program of China National Natural Science Foundation of China the fundamental research funds for the Norges Forskningsråd Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hou, Yaqi Nie, Yafei Min, Chao Shu, Qi Luo, Hao Liu, Jiping Yang, Qinghua |
spellingShingle |
Hou, Yaqi Nie, Yafei Min, Chao Shu, Qi Luo, Hao Liu, Jiping Yang, Qinghua Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
author_facet |
Hou, Yaqi Nie, Yafei Min, Chao Shu, Qi Luo, Hao Liu, Jiping Yang, Qinghua |
author_sort |
Hou, Yaqi |
title |
Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
title_short |
Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
title_full |
Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
title_fullStr |
Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluation of Antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in CMIP6 using Envisat and CryoSat-2 observations |
title_sort |
evaluation of antarctic sea ice thickness and volume during 2003–2014 in cmip6 using envisat and cryosat-2 observations |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725/pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ross Sea The Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ross Sea Sea ice Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ross Sea Sea ice Weddell Sea |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters volume 19, issue 1, page 014067 ISSN 1748-9326 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1725 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
_version_ |
1800739211664424960 |