Publication Date:
2017-01-31
Description:
High-resolution satellite sea ice concentrations (SIC), together with several ocean parameters, are assimilated into a regional Arctic coupled ocean-sea ice model covering the period 2000–2008 using the adjoint method. There is substantial improvement in the representation of the SIC spatial distribution, in particular with respect to the position of the ice edge and to the concentrations in the central parts of the Arctic Ocean during summer months. Seasonal cycles of total Arctic sea ice area show an overall improvement. During summer months values of sea ice extent become underestimated, however, it is shown that this metric is not suitable to characterize the quality of the sea ice simulation, as the root-mean-square difference to the data is reduced in nearly all months and years. Along with the SIC the sea ice thickness fields also become closer to observations, providing added-value by the assimilation. Very sparse data in the Arctic ocean, corresponding to a very small contribution to the cost function, prevent sizable improvements of assimilated ocean variables, with the exception of the sea surface temperature. The bias between simulated and observed SIC decreases mainly due to corrections to the surface atmospheric temperature, while contributions of other control variables remain small.
Print ISSN:
1994-0432
Electronic ISSN:
1994-0440
Topics:
Geography
,
Geosciences
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