Fast Ice Prediction System (FIPS) for land-fast sea ice at Prydz Bay, East Antarctica: an operational service for CHINARE

A Fast Ice Prediction System (FIPS) was constructed and is the first regional land-fast sea-ice forecasting system for the Antarctic. FIPS had two components: (1) near-real-time information on the ice-covered area from MODIS and SAR imagery that revealed, tidal cracks, ridged and rafted ice regions;...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Jiechen Zhao, Bin Cheng, Timo Vihma, Petra Heil, Fengming Hui, Qi Shu, Lin Zhang, Qinghua Yang
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2020
Subjects:
Antarctica
land-fast sea ice
operational service
Prydz Bay
snow and ice thickness
thermodynamic modeling
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Antarctic
The Antarctic
East Antarctica
Zhongshan
Zhongshan Station
Annals of Glaciology
Antarc*
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.46
https://doaj.org/article/4a1bb4db9d854bc8b3083634aaa86def
Description
Summary:A Fast Ice Prediction System (FIPS) was constructed and is the first regional land-fast sea-ice forecasting system for the Antarctic. FIPS had two components: (1) near-real-time information on the ice-covered area from MODIS and SAR imagery that revealed, tidal cracks, ridged and rafted ice regions; (2) a high-resolution 1-D thermodynamic snow and ice model (HIGHTSI) that was extended to perform a 2-D simulation on snow and ice evolution using atmospheric forcing from ECMWF: either using ERA-Interim reanalysis (in hindcast mode) or HERS operational 10-day predictions (in forecast mode). A hindcast experiment for the 2015 season was in good agreement with field observations, with a mean bias of 0.14 ± 0.07 m and a correlation coefficient of 0.98 for modeled ice thickness. The errors are largely caused by a cold bias in the atmospheric forcing. The thick snow cover during the 2015 season led to modeled formation of extensive snow ice and superimposed ice. The first FIPS operational service was performed during the 2017/18 season. The system predicted a realistic ice thickness and onset of snow surface melt as well as the area of internal ice melt. The model results on the snow and ice properties were considered by the captain of R/V Xuelong when optimizing a low-risk route for on-ice transportation through fast ice to the coastal Zhongshan Station.

Similar Items