Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers
The albedo of Arctic sea ice is calculated from summertime output of twentieth century Community Climate System Model v.4 (CCSM4) simulations. This is compared with an empirical record based on the generalized observations of the summer albedo progression along with melt onset dates determined from...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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John Wiley & Sons
2015
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Online Access: | http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-021-555 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010149 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_16526 2023-09-05T13:11:21+02:00 Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers Light, Bonnie (author) Dickinson, Suzanne (author) Perovich, Donald (author) Holland, Marika (author) 2015-01-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-021-555 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010149 en eng John Wiley & Sons Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-021-555 doi:10.1002/2014JC010149 ark:/85065/d77s7pzq Copyright 2015 American Geophysical Union. Text article 2015 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010149 2023-08-14T18:44:56Z The albedo of Arctic sea ice is calculated from summertime output of twentieth century Community Climate System Model v.4 (CCSM4) simulations. This is compared with an empirical record based on the generalized observations of the summer albedo progression along with melt onset dates determined from remote sensing. Only the contributions to albedo from ice, snow, and ponds are analyzed; fractional ice area is not considered in this assessment. Key factors dictating summer albedo evolution are the timing and extent of ponding and accumulation of snow. The CCSM4 summer sea ice albedo decline was found, on average, to be less pronounced than either the empirical record or the CLARA-SAL satellite record. The modeled ice albedo does not go as low as the empirical record, nor does the low summer albedo last as long. In the model, certain summers were found to retain snow on sea ice, thus inhibiting ice surface melt and the formation or retention of melt ponds. These “frozen” summers were generally not the summers with the largest spring snow accumulation, but were instead summers that received at least trace snowfall in June or July. When these frozen summers are omitted from the comparison, the model and empirical records are in much better agreement. This suggests that the representation of summer Arctic snowfall events and/or their influence on the sea ice conditions are not well represented in CCSM4 integrations, providing a target for future model development work. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Sea ice OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Arctic Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 120 1 284 303 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
The albedo of Arctic sea ice is calculated from summertime output of twentieth century Community Climate System Model v.4 (CCSM4) simulations. This is compared with an empirical record based on the generalized observations of the summer albedo progression along with melt onset dates determined from remote sensing. Only the contributions to albedo from ice, snow, and ponds are analyzed; fractional ice area is not considered in this assessment. Key factors dictating summer albedo evolution are the timing and extent of ponding and accumulation of snow. The CCSM4 summer sea ice albedo decline was found, on average, to be less pronounced than either the empirical record or the CLARA-SAL satellite record. The modeled ice albedo does not go as low as the empirical record, nor does the low summer albedo last as long. In the model, certain summers were found to retain snow on sea ice, thus inhibiting ice surface melt and the formation or retention of melt ponds. These “frozen” summers were generally not the summers with the largest spring snow accumulation, but were instead summers that received at least trace snowfall in June or July. When these frozen summers are omitted from the comparison, the model and empirical records are in much better agreement. This suggests that the representation of summer Arctic snowfall events and/or their influence on the sea ice conditions are not well represented in CCSM4 integrations, providing a target for future model development work. |
author2 |
Light, Bonnie (author) Dickinson, Suzanne (author) Perovich, Donald (author) Holland, Marika (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
spellingShingle |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
title_short |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
title_full |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
title_fullStr |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
title_sort |
evolution of summer arctic sea ice albedo in ccsm4 simulations: episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers |
publisher |
John Wiley & Sons |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-021-555 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010149 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Sea ice |
op_relation |
Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-021-555 doi:10.1002/2014JC010149 ark:/85065/d77s7pzq |
op_rights |
Copyright 2015 American Geophysical Union. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010149 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
120 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
284 |
op_container_end_page |
303 |
_version_ |
1776204688141582336 |