The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model
Though narrow straits may have a strong influence on the large-scale sea ice mass balance, they are often crudely represented in coarse resolution sea ice models. Unstructured meshes, with their natural ability to fit boundaries and locally increase the mesh resolution, propose an alternative framew...
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Elsevier Sci Ltd
2008
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/36344 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 |
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ftunivlouvain:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:36344 2024-05-19T07:33:35+00:00 The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model Lietaer, Olivier Fichefet, Thierry Legat, Vincent UCL - FSA/MECA - Département de mécanique UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate 2008 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/36344 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 eng eng Elsevier Sci Ltd boreal:36344 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/36344 doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 urn:ISSN:1463-5003 urn:EISSN:1463-5011 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Ocean Modelling, Vol. 24, no. 3-4, p. 140-152 (2008) sea ice model unstructured mesh finite element method Canadian Arctic Archipelago info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2008 ftunivlouvain https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 2024-04-24T01:50:25Z Though narrow straits may have a strong influence on the large-scale sea ice mass balance, they are often crudely represented in coarse resolution sea ice models. Unstructured meshes, with their natural ability to fit boundaries and locally increase the mesh resolution, propose an alternative framework to capture the complex oceanic areas formed by coasts and islands. In this paper, we develop a finite element sea ice model to investigate the sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice cover features to the resolution of the narrow straits constituting the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The model is a two-level dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model, including a viscous-plastic rheology. It is run over 1979-2005, forced by daily NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Confronting qualitatively numerical experiments with observations shows a good agreement with satellite and buoys measurements. Due to its simple representation of the oceanic interactions, the model overestimates the sea ice extent during winter in the southernmost parts of the Arctic, while the Baffin Bay and Kara Sea remain ice-covered during summer. In order to isolate the benefits from resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, a numerical experiment is performed where we artificially close the archipelago. Focusing Oil the large-scale sea ice thickness pattern, no significant change is found in our model, except in the close Surroundings of the archipelago. However, the local and shortterm influences of the ice exchanges are nonnegligible. in particular, we show that the ice volume associated to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago represents 10% of the Northern Hemisphere sea ice volume and that the annual mean ice export towards Baffin Bay amounts to 125 km(3) yr(-1), which may play an important role on the convective overturning in the Labrador Sea. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Kara Sea Labrador Sea Sea ice DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) Ocean Modelling 24 3-4 140 152 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivlouvain |
language |
English |
topic |
sea ice model unstructured mesh finite element method Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
spellingShingle |
sea ice model unstructured mesh finite element method Canadian Arctic Archipelago Lietaer, Olivier Fichefet, Thierry Legat, Vincent The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
topic_facet |
sea ice model unstructured mesh finite element method Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
description |
Though narrow straits may have a strong influence on the large-scale sea ice mass balance, they are often crudely represented in coarse resolution sea ice models. Unstructured meshes, with their natural ability to fit boundaries and locally increase the mesh resolution, propose an alternative framework to capture the complex oceanic areas formed by coasts and islands. In this paper, we develop a finite element sea ice model to investigate the sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice cover features to the resolution of the narrow straits constituting the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The model is a two-level dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model, including a viscous-plastic rheology. It is run over 1979-2005, forced by daily NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Confronting qualitatively numerical experiments with observations shows a good agreement with satellite and buoys measurements. Due to its simple representation of the oceanic interactions, the model overestimates the sea ice extent during winter in the southernmost parts of the Arctic, while the Baffin Bay and Kara Sea remain ice-covered during summer. In order to isolate the benefits from resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, a numerical experiment is performed where we artificially close the archipelago. Focusing Oil the large-scale sea ice thickness pattern, no significant change is found in our model, except in the close Surroundings of the archipelago. However, the local and shortterm influences of the ice exchanges are nonnegligible. in particular, we show that the ice volume associated to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago represents 10% of the Northern Hemisphere sea ice volume and that the annual mean ice export towards Baffin Bay amounts to 125 km(3) yr(-1), which may play an important role on the convective overturning in the Labrador Sea. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
author2 |
UCL - FSA/MECA - Département de mécanique UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lietaer, Olivier Fichefet, Thierry Legat, Vincent |
author_facet |
Lietaer, Olivier Fichefet, Thierry Legat, Vincent |
author_sort |
Lietaer, Olivier |
title |
The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
title_short |
The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
title_full |
The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
title_fullStr |
The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effects of resolving the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
title_sort |
effects of resolving the canadian arctic archipelago in a finite element sea ice model |
publisher |
Elsevier Sci Ltd |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/36344 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Kara Sea Labrador Sea Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Kara Sea Labrador Sea Sea ice |
op_source |
Ocean Modelling, Vol. 24, no. 3-4, p. 140-152 (2008) |
op_relation |
boreal:36344 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/36344 doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 urn:ISSN:1463-5003 urn:EISSN:1463-5011 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.06.002 |
container_title |
Ocean Modelling |
container_volume |
24 |
container_issue |
3-4 |
container_start_page |
140 |
op_container_end_page |
152 |
_version_ |
1799471704235311104 |