Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI)
Sea ice plays an important role in the air–ice–ocean interaction, but it is often represented simply in many regional atmospheric models. The Noah sea ice scheme, which is the only option in the current Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (version 3.6.1), has a problem of energy imbalance d...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:16d7506fc19d46358e64cf023f4975ad 2023-05-15T15:18:00+02:00 Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) Y. Yao J. Huang Y. Luo Z. Zhao 2016-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 https://doaj.org/article/16d7506fc19d46358e64cf023f4975ad EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/2239/2016/gmd-9-2239-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1991-959X https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9603 1991-959X 1991-9603 doi:10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 https://doaj.org/article/16d7506fc19d46358e64cf023f4975ad Geoscientific Model Development, Vol 9, Iss 6, Pp 2239-2254 (2016) Geology QE1-996.5 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 2022-12-31T00:08:21Z Sea ice plays an important role in the air–ice–ocean interaction, but it is often represented simply in many regional atmospheric models. The Noah sea ice scheme, which is the only option in the current Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (version 3.6.1), has a problem of energy imbalance due to its simplification in snow processes and lack of ablation and accretion processes in ice. Validated against the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) in situ observations, Noah underestimates the sea ice temperature which can reach −10 °C in winter. Sensitivity tests show that this bias is mainly attributed to the simulation within the ice when a time-dependent ice thickness is specified. Compared with the Noah sea ice model, the high-resolution thermodynamic snow and ice model (HIGHTSI) uses more realistic thermodynamics for snow and ice. Most importantly, HIGHTSI includes the ablation and accretion processes of sea ice and uses an interpolation method which can ensure the heat conservation during its integration. These allow the HIGHTSI to better resolve the energy balance in the sea ice, and the bias in sea ice temperature is reduced considerably. When HIGHTSI is coupled with the WRF model, the simulation of sea ice temperature by the original Polar WRF is greatly improved. Considering the bias with reference to SHEBA observations, WRF-HIGHTSI improves the simulation of surface temperature, 2 m air temperature and surface upward long-wave radiation flux in winter by 6, 5 °C and 20 W m −2 , respectively. A discussion on the impact of specifying sea ice thickness in the WRF model is presented. Consistent with previous research, prescribing the sea ice thickness with observational information results in the best simulation among the available methods. If no observational information is available, we present a new method in which the sea ice thickness is initialized from empirical estimation and its further change is predicted by a complex thermodynamic sea ice model. The ice thickness simulated by this ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Arctic Ocean Geoscientific Model Development 9 6 2239 2254 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Geology QE1-996.5 Y. Yao J. Huang Y. Luo Z. Zhao Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
topic_facet |
Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Sea ice plays an important role in the air–ice–ocean interaction, but it is often represented simply in many regional atmospheric models. The Noah sea ice scheme, which is the only option in the current Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (version 3.6.1), has a problem of energy imbalance due to its simplification in snow processes and lack of ablation and accretion processes in ice. Validated against the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) in situ observations, Noah underestimates the sea ice temperature which can reach −10 °C in winter. Sensitivity tests show that this bias is mainly attributed to the simulation within the ice when a time-dependent ice thickness is specified. Compared with the Noah sea ice model, the high-resolution thermodynamic snow and ice model (HIGHTSI) uses more realistic thermodynamics for snow and ice. Most importantly, HIGHTSI includes the ablation and accretion processes of sea ice and uses an interpolation method which can ensure the heat conservation during its integration. These allow the HIGHTSI to better resolve the energy balance in the sea ice, and the bias in sea ice temperature is reduced considerably. When HIGHTSI is coupled with the WRF model, the simulation of sea ice temperature by the original Polar WRF is greatly improved. Considering the bias with reference to SHEBA observations, WRF-HIGHTSI improves the simulation of surface temperature, 2 m air temperature and surface upward long-wave radiation flux in winter by 6, 5 °C and 20 W m −2 , respectively. A discussion on the impact of specifying sea ice thickness in the WRF model is presented. Consistent with previous research, prescribing the sea ice thickness with observational information results in the best simulation among the available methods. If no observational information is available, we present a new method in which the sea ice thickness is initialized from empirical estimation and its further change is predicted by a complex thermodynamic sea ice model. The ice thickness simulated by this ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Y. Yao J. Huang Y. Luo Z. Zhao |
author_facet |
Y. Yao J. Huang Y. Luo Z. Zhao |
author_sort |
Y. Yao |
title |
Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
title_short |
Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
title_full |
Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
title_fullStr |
Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Improving the WRF model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (HIGHTSI) |
title_sort |
improving the wrf model's (version 3.6.1) simulation over sea ice surface through coupling with a complex thermodynamic sea ice model (hightsi) |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 https://doaj.org/article/16d7506fc19d46358e64cf023f4975ad |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean |
op_source |
Geoscientific Model Development, Vol 9, Iss 6, Pp 2239-2254 (2016) |
op_relation |
http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/2239/2016/gmd-9-2239-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1991-959X https://doaj.org/toc/1991-9603 1991-959X 1991-9603 doi:10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 https://doaj.org/article/16d7506fc19d46358e64cf023f4975ad |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-2239-2016 |
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Geoscientific Model Development |
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9 |
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6 |
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2239 |
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2254 |
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