Seasonal evolution of the Arctic sea ice thickness distribution ...

• Main Authors: Toppaladoddi, Srikanth, Moon, Woosok, Wettlaufer, John S.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2022
• Subjects: Geophysics physics.geo-ph; Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph; FOS Physical sciences; Arctic; ice pack; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2212.02131; https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.02131

The Thorndike et al., (\emph{J. Geophys. Res.} {\bf 80} 4501, 1975) theory of the ice thickness distribution, $g(h)$, treats the dynamic and thermodynamic aggregate properties of the ice pack in a novel and physically self-consistent manner. Therefore, it has provided the conceptual basis of the treatment of sea-ice thickness categories in climate models. The approach, however, is not mathematically closed due to the treatment of mechanical deformation using the redistribution function $ψ$, the authors noting ``The present theory suffers from a burdensome and arbitrary redistribution function $ψ.$'' Toppaladoddi and Wettlaufer (\emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 115} 148501, 2015) showed how $ψ$ can be written in terms of $g(h)$, thereby solving the mathematical closure problem and writing the theory in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation, which they solved analytically to quantitatively reproduce the observed winter $g(h)$. Here, we extend this approach to include open water by formulating a new boundary condition ... : 8 pages, 10 figures ...