Sea Ice - Modelling

Modelling

In order to gain a better understanding about the variability, numerical sea ice models are used to perform sensitivity studies. The two main ingredients are the ice dynamics and the thermodynamical properties (see Sea ice emissivity modelling, Sea ice growth processes and Sea ice thickness).

Many Global Climate Models (GCMs) have sea ice implemented in their numerical simulation scheme in order to capture the Ice-albedo feedback correctly. Examples are:

  • The MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm) is a global circulation model developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) includes a package for sea-ice (MITgcm:seaice). The code is freely available there.
  • The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) develops the Community Sea Ice Model (CSIM).
  • The Los Alamos National Laboratory has a project called Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE). CICE is open source and designed as s component of GCM, although it provides a standalone mode.
  • The Finite-Element Sea-Ice Ocean Model (FESOM) developed at Alfred Wegener Institute uses an unstructured grid.

The Coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP) offers a standard protocol for studying the output of coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models. The coupling takes place at the atmosphere-ocean interface where the sea ice may occur.

In addition to global modeling, various regional models deal with sea ice. Regional models are employed for seasonal forecasting experiments and for process studies.

Read more about this topic:  Sea Ice

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