Evaluation of simulated sea-ice concentrations from sea-ice/ocean models using satellite data and polynya classification methods

• Published in: Polar Research
• Main Authors: Susanne Adams, Sascha Willmes, Günther Heinemann, Polona Rozman, Ralph Timmermann, David Schröder
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 2011
• Subjects: Polynyas; sea ice; sea-ice/ocean models; remote sensing; geo; envir; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Laptev Sea; Atlantic Arctic; Atlantic-Arctic; laptev; North Atlantic; Polar Research; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7124; https://doaj.org/article/d679b33cc0ee4e089548c0712484e35d

Sea-ice concentrations in the Laptev Sea simulated by the coupled North Atlantic–Arctic Ocean–Sea-Ice Model and Finite Element Sea-Ice Ocean Model are evaluated using sea-ice concentrations from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer–Earth Observing System satellite data and a polynya classification method for winter 2007/08. While developed to simulate large-scale sea-ice conditions, both models are analysed here in terms of polynya simulation. The main modification of both models in this study is the implementation of a landfast-ice mask. Simulated sea-ice fields from different model runs are compared with emphasis placed on the impact of this prescribed landfast-ice mask. We demonstrate that sea-ice models are not able to simulate flaw polynyas realistically when used without fast-ice description. Our investigations indicate that without landfast ice and with coarse horizontal resolution the models overestimate the fraction of open water in the polynya. This is not because a realistic polynya appears but due to a larger-scale reduction of ice concentrations and smoothed ice-concentration fields. After implementation of a landfast-ice mask, the polynya location is realistically simulated but the total open-water area is still overestimated in most cases. The study shows that the fast-ice parameterization is essential for model improvements. However, further improvements are necessary in order to progress from the simulation of large-scale features in the Arctic towards a more detailed simulation of smaller-scaled features (here polynyas) in an Arctic shelf sea.