Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes
A new method of sea ice model evaluation is demonstrated. Data from the network of Arctic ice mass balance buoys (IMBs) are used to estimate distributions of vertical energy fluxes over sea ice in two densely sampled regions – the North Pole and Beaufort Sea. The resulting dataset captures seasonal...
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Online Access: | https://zenodo.org/record/4085011 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 |
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ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:4085011 2023-06-06T11:50:02+02:00 Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes West, Alex Blockley, Ed Collins, Mat 2020-10-09 https://zenodo.org/record/4085011 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 unknown info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/727862/ https://zenodo.org/communities/applicate https://zenodo.org/record/4085011 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 oai:zenodo.org:4085011 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode info:eu-repo/semantics/article publication-article 2020 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 2023-04-13T23:10:32Z A new method of sea ice model evaluation is demonstrated. Data from the network of Arctic ice mass balance buoys (IMBs) are used to estimate distributions of vertical energy fluxes over sea ice in two densely sampled regions – the North Pole and Beaufort Sea. The resulting dataset captures seasonal variability in sea ice energy fluxes well, and it captures spatial variability to a lesser extent. The dataset is used to evaluate a coupled climate model, HadGEM2-ES (Hadley Centre Global Environment Model, version 2, Earth System), in the two regions. The evaluation shows HadGEM2-ES to simulate too much top melting in summer and too much basal conduction in winter. These results are consistent with a previous study of sea ice state and surface radiation in this model, increasing confidence in the IMB-based evaluation. In addition, the IMB-based evaluation suggests an additional important cause for excessive winter ice growth in HadGEM2-ES, a lack of sea ice heat capacity, which was not detectable in the earlier study. Uncertainty in the IMB fluxes caused by imperfect knowledge of ice salinity, snow density and other physical constants is quantified (as is inaccuracy due to imperfect sampling of ice thickness) and in most cases is found to be small relative to the model biases discussed. Hence the IMB-based evaluation is shown to be a valuable tool with which to analyse sea ice models and, by extension, better understand the large spread in coupled model simulations of the present-day ice state. Reducing this spread is a key task both in understanding the current rapid decline in Arctic sea ice and in constraining projections of future Arctic sea ice change. https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/13/4845/2020/gmd-13-4845-2020.html Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Beaufort Sea North Pole Sea ice Zenodo Arctic North Pole Geoscientific Model Development 13 10 4845 4868 |
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description |
A new method of sea ice model evaluation is demonstrated. Data from the network of Arctic ice mass balance buoys (IMBs) are used to estimate distributions of vertical energy fluxes over sea ice in two densely sampled regions – the North Pole and Beaufort Sea. The resulting dataset captures seasonal variability in sea ice energy fluxes well, and it captures spatial variability to a lesser extent. The dataset is used to evaluate a coupled climate model, HadGEM2-ES (Hadley Centre Global Environment Model, version 2, Earth System), in the two regions. The evaluation shows HadGEM2-ES to simulate too much top melting in summer and too much basal conduction in winter. These results are consistent with a previous study of sea ice state and surface radiation in this model, increasing confidence in the IMB-based evaluation. In addition, the IMB-based evaluation suggests an additional important cause for excessive winter ice growth in HadGEM2-ES, a lack of sea ice heat capacity, which was not detectable in the earlier study. Uncertainty in the IMB fluxes caused by imperfect knowledge of ice salinity, snow density and other physical constants is quantified (as is inaccuracy due to imperfect sampling of ice thickness) and in most cases is found to be small relative to the model biases discussed. Hence the IMB-based evaluation is shown to be a valuable tool with which to analyse sea ice models and, by extension, better understand the large spread in coupled model simulations of the present-day ice state. Reducing this spread is a key task both in understanding the current rapid decline in Arctic sea ice and in constraining projections of future Arctic sea ice change. https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/13/4845/2020/gmd-13-4845-2020.html |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
West, Alex Blockley, Ed Collins, Mat |
spellingShingle |
West, Alex Blockley, Ed Collins, Mat Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
author_facet |
West, Alex Blockley, Ed Collins, Mat |
author_sort |
West, Alex |
title |
Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
title_short |
Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
title_full |
Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
title_fullStr |
Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Using Arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
title_sort |
using arctic ice mass balance buoys for evaluation of modelled ice energy fluxes |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://zenodo.org/record/4085011 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 |
geographic |
Arctic North Pole |
geographic_facet |
Arctic North Pole |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea North Pole Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea North Pole Sea ice |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/727862/ https://zenodo.org/communities/applicate https://zenodo.org/record/4085011 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 oai:zenodo.org:4085011 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4845-2020 |
container_title |
Geoscientific Model Development |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
4845 |
op_container_end_page |
4868 |
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1767955794054086656 |