Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow
The sensitivity of a global, coarse-resolution ice-ocean model to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of the snow overlaying Antarctic sea ice (k(sant)) is investigated. This study was motivated by recent observations made in the eastern sector of the Southern Ocean and in the Bellingshausen, Amu...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Language: | English |
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Amer Geophysical Union
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL002397 |
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ftunivlouvain:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:43736 2024-05-19T07:31:31+00:00 Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow Fichefet, Thierry Tartinville, B Goosse, Hugues UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate 2000 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL002397 eng eng Amer Geophysical Union boreal:43736 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736 doi:10.1029/1999GL002397 urn:ISSN:0094-8276 urn:EISSN:1944-8007 Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 401-404 (2000) info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2000 ftunivlouvain https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL002397 2024-04-24T01:48:53Z The sensitivity of a global, coarse-resolution ice-ocean model to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of the snow overlaying Antarctic sea ice (k(sant)) is investigated. This study was motivated by recent observations made in the eastern sector of the Southern Ocean and in the Bellingshausen, Amundsen, and Ross Seas, which suggest that the value of k(sant) usually used in large-scale sea ice models is about a factor two too high. When k(sant) is reduced by half in our model, the average thickness of the Antarctic ice pack decreases by 10 cm (10%) and the geographical distributions of snow and ice thicknesses become mon realistic. A strengthening of the Southern Ocean stratification and a concomitant weakening of the Antarctic Bottom Water meridional overturning are also noticed. This ultimately impacts on the sensible heat flux from the ocean to the ice and thus on the rate of thermodynamic ice growth. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Sea ice Southern Ocean DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) Geophysical Research Letters 27 3 401 404 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivlouvain |
language |
English |
description |
The sensitivity of a global, coarse-resolution ice-ocean model to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of the snow overlaying Antarctic sea ice (k(sant)) is investigated. This study was motivated by recent observations made in the eastern sector of the Southern Ocean and in the Bellingshausen, Amundsen, and Ross Seas, which suggest that the value of k(sant) usually used in large-scale sea ice models is about a factor two too high. When k(sant) is reduced by half in our model, the average thickness of the Antarctic ice pack decreases by 10 cm (10%) and the geographical distributions of snow and ice thicknesses become mon realistic. A strengthening of the Southern Ocean stratification and a concomitant weakening of the Antarctic Bottom Water meridional overturning are also noticed. This ultimately impacts on the sensible heat flux from the ocean to the ice and thus on the rate of thermodynamic ice growth. |
author2 |
UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fichefet, Thierry Tartinville, B Goosse, Hugues |
spellingShingle |
Fichefet, Thierry Tartinville, B Goosse, Hugues Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
author_facet |
Fichefet, Thierry Tartinville, B Goosse, Hugues |
author_sort |
Fichefet, Thierry |
title |
Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
title_short |
Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
title_full |
Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
title_fullStr |
Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
title_sort |
sensitivity of the antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow |
publisher |
Amer Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL002397 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 401-404 (2000) |
op_relation |
boreal:43736 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736 doi:10.1029/1999GL002397 urn:ISSN:0094-8276 urn:EISSN:1944-8007 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GL002397 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
401 |
op_container_end_page |
404 |
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1799469371812216832 |