Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes
Tracer advection schemes used by ocean models are susceptible to artificial oscillations: a form of numerical error whereby the advected field alternates between overshooting and undershooting the exact solution, producing false extrema. Here we show that these oscillations have undesirable interact...
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ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:124345 2023-05-15T13:49:03+02:00 Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes Naughten, KA Galton-Fenzi, BK Meissner, KJ England, MH Brassington, GB Colberg, F Hattermann, T Debernard, JB 2017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124345 en eng Elsevier Sci Ltd http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 Naughten, KA and Galton-Fenzi, BK and Meissner, KJ and England, MH and Brassington, GB and Colberg, F and Hattermann, T and Debernard, JB, Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes, Ocean Modelling, 116 pp. 108-117. ISSN 1463-5003 (2017) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124345 Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 2019-12-13T22:23:01Z Tracer advection schemes used by ocean models are susceptible to artificial oscillations: a form of numerical error whereby the advected field alternates between overshooting and undershooting the exact solution, producing false extrema. Here we show that these oscillations have undesirable interactions with a coupled sea ice model. When oscillations cause the near-surface ocean temperature to fall below the freezing point, sea ice forms for no reason other than numerical error. This spurious sea ice formation has significant and wide-ranging impacts on Southern Ocean simulations, including the disappearance of coastal polynyas, stratification of the water column, erosion of Winter Water, and upwelling of warm Circumpolar Deep Water. This significantly limits the models suitability for coupled ocean-ice and climate studies. Using the terrain-following-coordinate ocean model ROMS (Regional Ocean Modelling System) coupled to the sea ice model CICE (Community Ice CodE) on a circumpolar Antarctic domain, we compare the performance of three different tracer advection schemes, as well as two levels of parameterised diffusion and the addition of flux limiters to prevent numerical oscillations. The upwind third-order advection scheme performs better than the centered fourth-order and Akima fourth-order advection schemes, with far fewer incidents of spurious sea ice formation. The latter two schemes are less problematic with higher parameterised diffusion, although some supercooling artifacts persist. Spurious supercooling was eliminated by adding flux limiters to the upwind third-order scheme. We present this comparison as evidence of the problematic nature of oscillatory advection schemes in sea ice formation regions, and urge other ocean/sea-ice modellers to exercise caution when using such schemes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Antarctic Southern Ocean Ocean Modelling 116 108 117 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Naughten, KA Galton-Fenzi, BK Meissner, KJ England, MH Brassington, GB Colberg, F Hattermann, T Debernard, JB Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
description |
Tracer advection schemes used by ocean models are susceptible to artificial oscillations: a form of numerical error whereby the advected field alternates between overshooting and undershooting the exact solution, producing false extrema. Here we show that these oscillations have undesirable interactions with a coupled sea ice model. When oscillations cause the near-surface ocean temperature to fall below the freezing point, sea ice forms for no reason other than numerical error. This spurious sea ice formation has significant and wide-ranging impacts on Southern Ocean simulations, including the disappearance of coastal polynyas, stratification of the water column, erosion of Winter Water, and upwelling of warm Circumpolar Deep Water. This significantly limits the models suitability for coupled ocean-ice and climate studies. Using the terrain-following-coordinate ocean model ROMS (Regional Ocean Modelling System) coupled to the sea ice model CICE (Community Ice CodE) on a circumpolar Antarctic domain, we compare the performance of three different tracer advection schemes, as well as two levels of parameterised diffusion and the addition of flux limiters to prevent numerical oscillations. The upwind third-order advection scheme performs better than the centered fourth-order and Akima fourth-order advection schemes, with far fewer incidents of spurious sea ice formation. The latter two schemes are less problematic with higher parameterised diffusion, although some supercooling artifacts persist. Spurious supercooling was eliminated by adding flux limiters to the upwind third-order scheme. We present this comparison as evidence of the problematic nature of oscillatory advection schemes in sea ice formation regions, and urge other ocean/sea-ice modellers to exercise caution when using such schemes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Naughten, KA Galton-Fenzi, BK Meissner, KJ England, MH Brassington, GB Colberg, F Hattermann, T Debernard, JB |
author_facet |
Naughten, KA Galton-Fenzi, BK Meissner, KJ England, MH Brassington, GB Colberg, F Hattermann, T Debernard, JB |
author_sort |
Naughten, KA |
title |
Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
title_short |
Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
title_full |
Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
title_fullStr |
Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
title_sort |
spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes |
publisher |
Elsevier Sci Ltd |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124345 |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 Naughten, KA and Galton-Fenzi, BK and Meissner, KJ and England, MH and Brassington, GB and Colberg, F and Hattermann, T and Debernard, JB, Spurious sea ice formation caused by oscillatory ocean tracer advection schemes, Ocean Modelling, 116 pp. 108-117. ISSN 1463-5003 (2017) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124345 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.06.010 |
container_title |
Ocean Modelling |
container_volume |
116 |
container_start_page |
108 |
op_container_end_page |
117 |
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1766250745356615680 |