A new state-dependent parameterization for the free drift of sea ice

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: C. Brunette, L. B. Tremblay, R. Newton
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: geo; envir; Sea ice; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-533-2022; https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/533/2022/tc-16-533-2022.pdf; https://doaj.org/article/7f57cb8a16f840be8c59c77bb7dd0298

Free-drift estimates of sea ice motion are necessary to produce a seamless observational record combining buoy and satellite-derived sea ice motion vectors. We develop a new parameterization for the free drift of sea ice based on wind forcing, wind turning angle, sea ice state variables (thickness and concentration), and estimates of the ocean currents. Given the fact that the spatial distribution of the wind–ice–ocean transfer coefficient has a similar structure to that of the spatial distribution of sea ice thickness, we take the standard free-drift equation and introduce a wind–ice–ocean transfer coefficient that scales linearly with ice thickness. Results show a mean bias error of −0.5 cm s−1 (low-speed bias) and a root-mean-square error of 5.1 cm s−1, considering daily buoy drift data as truth. This represents a 35 % reduction of the error on drift speed compared to the free-drift estimates used in the Polar Pathfinder dataset (Tschudi et al., 2019b). The thickness-dependent transfer coefficient provides an improved seasonality and long-term trend of the sea ice drift speed, with a minimum (maximum) drift speed in May (October), compared to July (January) for the constant transfer coefficient parameterizations which simply follow the peak in mean surface wind stresses. Over the 1979–2019 period, the trend in sea ice drift in this new model is +0.45 cm s−1 per decade compared with +0.39 cm s−1 per decade from the buoy observations, whereas there is essentially no trend in a free-drift parameterization with a constant transfer coefficient (−0.09 cm s−1 per decade) or the Polar Pathfinder free-drift input data (−0.01 cm s−1 per decade). The optimal wind turning angle obtained from a least-squares fitting is 25∘, resulting in a mean error and a root-mean-square error of +3 and 42∘ on the direction of the drift, respectively. The ocean current estimates obtained from the minimization procedure resolve key large-scale features such as the Beaufort Gyre and Transpolar Drift Stream and are in good agreement with ...