Ocean and sea ice 1/12 degree model hindcast for the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans (2003-2009)

• Main Authors: Davidson, Fraser, Higginson, Simon, Dupont, Frederic, Lemieux, Jean-Francois, Lu, Youyu, Roy, François, Smith, Gregory
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2015
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Beaufort Sea; Forecast; Modeling; Ocean currents; Oceanic water masses; Oceanography; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; Sea ice; Sea level; Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment; Arctic; Canada; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5443/12442; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=12442

Ocean and sea ice conditions are simulated for the period 2003-2009 using the model configuration described in Dupont et al. (2015). The model includes the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans, and has a horizontal resolution of 1/12 degree, equivalent to an average of approximately 5km in the Arctic. There are 50 vertical levels in the model. The model is driven at the surface by atmospheric conditions from the Environment Canada GDPS, and at the boundaries by a global ocean model. The output variables included here are ocean temperature, ocean salinity, sea surface height, ocean currents (surface and subsurface), sea ice concentration, sea ice thickness and sea ice drift. All variables are produced as monthly averages in netCDF format. : Purpose: Coupled ocean-wave-ice-atmosphere forecast models are being developed through a collaboration between Environment Canada, Fisheries & Oceans Canada and the Department of National Defence. These coupled forecast systems will provide improved short range (<10 days) weather, ocean and ice forecasts for the Arctic, including the Beaufort Sea. These improved forecasts will aid marine safety, resource development operations, regulatory functions and local communities. This dataset comprises output from a hindcast run of an ocean and sea-ice model developed as part of this collaboration. The hindcast gives an estimate of the ocean and sea ice conditions for the period 2003-2009, and it was produced to enable verification of the modeling system against observations. : Summary: This dataset gives monthly estimates of the physical state of the ocean and sea ice in the Arctic, generated by a computer model for the period 2003-2009. The variables included are ocean temperature, salinity and currents (surface and subsurface), sea level, and sea ice concentration, thickness and drift. The data is in netCDF format. A number of free netCDF viewers are available e.g. the Panoply data viewer (www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/panoply/), but see www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/software.html for a full list.