Benefits from representing snow properties and related processes in coupled ocean-sea ice models

• Published in: Ocean Modelling
• Main Authors: Lecomte, Olivier, Fichefet, Thierry, Massonnet, François, Vancoppenolle, Martin
• Other Authors: Institut d'Astronomie et de Géophysique Georges Lemaître (UCL-ASTR), Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Processus de couplage à Petite Echelle, Ecosystèmes et Prédateurs Supérieurs (PEPS), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), European Project: 226520,EC:FP7:ENV,FP7-ENV-2008-1,COMBINE(2009)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2015
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01138996; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2014.11.005

International audience Several large-scale sea ice simulations are performed over the last three decades using a coupled ocean–sea ice model under the same experimental setup but partly modifying the representation of snow physics in the model. The inter-simulation spread analysis yields that the simulated multi-year ice is sensitive to such changes while the seasonal sea ice, is rather dominantly driven by the external oceanic and atmospheric forcings. In the context of a thinning Arctic sea ice cover, those findings suggest that including snow processes in large-scale sea ice models is beneficial, if not necessary, to predict the timing of the Arctic multi-year ice disappearance, whereas the operational forecasting of first-year ice extent using fully coupled models will likely require improvement to the oceanic and atmospheric components themselve