The Role of the Laptev Sea Fast Ice in an Arctic Ocean - Sea Ice Coupled Model

• Main Author: Rozman, Polona
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Laptev Sea; Arctic Basin; Atlantic Arctic; Atlantic-Arctic; laptev; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28410/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28410/1/2009_Rozman-Polona_MSc-Thesis_eng.pdf

Landfast sea ice edge plays a dominant role in positioning of flaw polynyas - winter sea ice production and dense water formation areas of the Arctic shelf seas. Laptev Sea fast ice is of particular interest due to its role of slowing down the freshwater discharge of Lena and other major Siberian rivers, impacting the thermohaline circulation and sea-ice regimes over the shelf and in the Arctic Basin. Laptev Sea fast ice masks for winter 2007/08 based on satellite observations were used to incorporate land fast ice into the coupled ice-ocean model NAOSIM (North Atlantic/Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Model). Model run results with and without a parameterization for fast ice were compared to mooring data and remote sensing data. A significantly more realistic representation of sea ice properties as well as oceanic parameters was obtained by including the fast ice in the model.