q 1998 American Meteorological Society Arctic Ice–Ocean Modeling with and without Climate Restoring

• Main Authors: J. Zhang, W. D. Hibler Iii, M. Steele, D. A. Rothrock
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1996
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Barents Sea; Norwegian Sea; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.650.3447; http://psc.apl.washington.edu/zhang/Pubs/zhang2_98.pdf

A coupled ice–mixed layer–ocean model is constructed for the Arctic Ocean, the Barents Sea, and the Green-land–Iceland–Norwegian Sea. The model is used to address Arctic numerical modeling with and without climate restoring. The model without climate restoring reproduces basic observed features of the Arctic ice–ocean circulation. The simulated oceanic processes adjust to the surface and lateral fluxes and transport heat and mass in a way that achieves a rough salt and heat balance in the Arctic in the integration period of seven decades. The main deficiency of the model is its prediction of unrealistically high salinity in the central Arctic, which tends to weaken the ocean currents. The introduction of corrective salinity and temperature restoring terms has a significant impact on prediction of the ice–ocean circulation in the Arctic. The impact results from a chain reaction. First, the restoring terms change the salinity and thermal states in the oceanic mixed layer and below. The altered density structure, in turn, influences the ocean circulation by altering the ocean’s dynamic and thermodynamic processes. The ocean circulation then affects ice motion and ice thickness by altering the dynamics and thermodynamics of the ice. Restoring only ocean salinity induces a heat surplus or deficit, which causes the oceanic thermal state to drift away from the climatology. This is also the case with restoring both salinity and temperature in the upper ocean.