Investigation of the Recent Ice Characteristics in the Bohai Sea in the Winters of 2005–2022 Using Multi-Source Data

• Published in: Water
• Main Authors: Ge Li, Yan Jiao, Xue Chen, Yiding Zhao, Rui Li, Donglin Guo, Lei Ge, Qiaokun Hou, Qingkai Wang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2024
• Subjects: sea ice; ice characteristics; ice zone division; winter; Bohai Sea; Hydraulic engineering; TC1-978; Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes; TD201-500; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/w16020290; https://doaj.org/article/55e4bba1f348455a97f1593e97c85411

The safety of winter activities in the Bohai Sea requires more detailed information on ice characteristics and a more refined ice zone division. In the present study, 1/12°-resolution sea ice characteristic data were obtained based on the NEMO-LIM2 ice–ocean coupling model that assimilated MODIS satellite sea ice observations from the years of 2005 to 2022 to acquire new sea ice hindcasting data. On this basis, the ice period, ice thickness, ice concentration, ice temperature, ice salinity, and design ice thickness for different return periods in the 1/4°-resolution refined zoning were analyzed, which were then compared with the sea ice characteristics in the previous 21-ice-zone standard. The distribution of ice temperature and ice salinity was closely related to the distribution of ice thickness. The results of ice period, ice thickness, and ice concentration, as well as design ice thickness for different return periods, and the comparison with the previous 21-ice-zone standards, showed that the ice condition on the west coast of the Bohai Sea has significantly reduced.