On the statistical properties of sea-ice lead fraction and heat fluxes in the Arctic

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Ólason, Einar, Rampal, Pierre, Dansereau, Véronique
• Other Authors: Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center Bergen (NERSC), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Gustave Eiffel-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Sea ice; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://hal.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/hal-03405380; https://hal.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/hal-03405380/document; https://hal.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/hal-03405380/file/Olason2021The_Cryosphere.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1053-2021

International audience We explore several statistical properties of the observed and simulated Arctic sea-ice lead fraction, as well as the statistics of simulated Arctic ocean-atmosphere heat fluxes. First we show that the observed lead fraction in the Central Arctic has a monofractal spatial scaling, which we relate to the multifractal spatial scaling present in sea-ice deformation rates. We then show that the relevant statistics of the observed lead fraction in the Central Arctic are well represented by our model, neXtSIM. Given that the heat flux through leads may be up to 2 orders of magnitude larger than that through unbroken ice, we then explore the statistical properties (probability distribution function-PDFand spatial scaling) of the heat fluxes simulated by neXtSIM. We demonstrate that the modelled heat fluxes present a multifractal scaling in the Central Arctic, where heat fluxes through leads dominate the high-flux tail of the PDF. This multifractal character relates to the multi-and monofractal character of deformation rates and the lead fraction. In the wider Arctic, the high-flux tail of the PDF is dominated by an exponential decay, which we attribute to the presence of coastal polynyas. Finally, we show that the scaling of the simulated lead fraction and heat fluxes depends weakly on the model resolution and discuss the role sub-grid-scale parameterisations of the ice heterogeneity may have in improving this result.