Sea Ice Physics and Modelling

doi:10.1017/9781108277600.003

2 - Sea Ice Physics and Modelling

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2017

Jean-François Lemieux ,

Louis-Bruno Tremblay ,

Martin Vancoppenolle and

Timothy Williams

Edited by

Tom Carrieres ,

Mark Buehner ,

Jean-Franҫois Lemieux and

Leif Toudal Pedersen

Show author details

Tom Carrieres: Affiliation:
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Mark Buehner: Affiliation:
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Jean-Franҫois Lemieux: Affiliation:
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Leif Toudal Pedersen: Affiliation:
Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby

Book contents

Get access

Summary

To forecast the evolution of the sea ice cover in a particular region over a certain period of time, an automated prediction system must have a sea ice model. To produce these forecasts, a sea ice model requires information about the initial sea ice conditions and the atmospheric and oceanic forcing that largely govern the evolution of sea ice. The goal of this chapter is to describe how dynamics and thermodynamics processes are represented in large-scale continuum-based sea ice models. The physical processes presented include the transfer of momentum at the ice interfaces, sea ice rheology, transport, ridging, lateral melt and vertical growth and melt. This chapter also introduces how the equations for dynamics and thermodynamics are typically implemented and solved numerically. Recent model developements such as wave-ice interactions, salt dynamics and melt pond modelling are also discussed.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Sea Ice Analysis and Forecasting
Towards an Increased Reliance on Automated Prediction Systems
, pp. 1 - 9

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108277600.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amundrud, T.L., Melling, H. and Ingram, R.G. (2004). Geometrical constraints on the evolution of ridged sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, C06005. doi: 10.1029/2003JC002251.Google Scholar

Bitz, C.M. and Lipscomb, W.H. (1999). An energy-conserving thermodynamic model of sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104, 15669–15677.Google Scholar

Bouillon, S. and Rampal, P. (2015). Presentation of the dynamical core of neXtSIM, a new sea ice model. Ocean Modelling, 91, 23–37.Google Scholar

Coon, M.D., Maykut, G.A., Pritchard, R.S., Rothrock, D.A. and Thorndike, A.S. (1974). Modeling the pack ice as an elastic–plastic material. AIDJEX Bulletin, 24, 1–105.Google Scholar

Dumont, D., Kohout, A. and Bertino, L. (2011). A wave‐based model for the marginal ice zone including a floe breaking parameterization. Journal of Geophysical Research, 116, C04001. doi: 10.1029/2010JC006682.Google Scholar

Dupont, F., Vancoppenolle, M., Tremblay, L.-B. and Huwald, H. (2015). Comparison of different numerical approaches to the 1D sea-ice thermodynamics problem. Ocean Modelling, 87, 20–29. doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2014.12.006.Google Scholar

Feltham, D.L. (2008). Sea ice rheology. The Annual of Fluid Mechanics, 40, 91–112.Google Scholar

Flato, G.M. (1993). A particle-in-cell sea-ice model. Atmosphere-Ocean, 31, 3, 339–358.Google Scholar

Flato, G.M. and Hibler, W.D. (1995). Ridging and strength in modeling the thickness distribution of Arctic sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100(C9), 18611–18626.Google Scholar

Flato, G.M. (1998). The thickness variable in sea‐ice models. Atmosphere-Ocean, 36(1), 29–36.Google Scholar

Flocco, D., Feltham, D.L. and Turner, A.K. (2010). Incorporation of a physically based melt pond scheme into the sea ice component of a climate model. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, 115, C08012. doi: 10.1029/2009JC005568.Google Scholar

Girard, L., Weiss, J., Molines, J.M., Barnier, B. and Bouillon, S. (2009). Evaluation of high‐resolution sea ice models on the basis of statistical and scaling properties of Arctic sea ice drift and deformation. Journal of Geophysical Research, 114, C08015. doi: 10.1029/2008JC005182.Google Scholar

Girard, L., Bouillon, S., Weiss, J., Amitrano, D., Fichefet, T. and Legat, V. (2011). A new modeling framework for sea-ice mechanics based on elasto-brittle rheology. Annals of Glaciology, 52(57), 123–132.Google Scholar

Hibler, W.D. (1979). A dynamic thermodynamic sea ice model. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 9, 815–846.Google Scholar

Hopkins, M.A. (1994). On the ridging of intact lead ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 99(C8), 16351–16360.Google Scholar

Hopkins, M.A. (1996). On the mesoscale interaction of lead ice and floes. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101(C8), 18315–18326.Google Scholar

Horvat, C. and Tziperman, E. (2015). A prognostic model of the sea-ice floe size and thickness distribution. The Cryosphere, 9, 2119–2134. doi: 10.5194/tc-9–2119-2015.Google Scholar

Hunke, E.C. (2001). Viscous–plastic sea ice dynamics with the EVP model: linearization issues. Journal of Computational Physics, 170(1), 18–38. doi: 10.1006/jcph.2001.6710.Google Scholar

Hunke, E.C., Lipscomb, W.H. and Turner, A.K. (2010) Sea-ice models for climate study: retrospective and new directions. Journal of Glaciology, 56(200), 1162–1172.Google Scholar

Hunke, E.C., Notz, D.K., Turner, A.K. and Vancoppenolle, M. (2011). The multi-phase physics of sea ice: a review for modellers. The Cryosphere, 5, 989–1009. doi: 10.5194/tc-5–989-2011.Google Scholar

Hunke, E.C., Hebert, D.A. and Lecomte, O. (2013) Level-ice melt ponds in the Los Alamos sea ice model, CICE. Ocean modelling, 71, 26–42, 10.1016/j.ocemod.2012.11.008.Google Scholar

Kimmritz, M., Danilov, S. and Losch, M. (2015). On the convergence of the modified elastic–viscous–plastic method for solving the sea ice momentum equation. Journal of Computational Physics, 296, 90–100. doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2015.04.051.Google Scholar

König Beatty, C. and Holland, D.M. (2010). Modeling landfast sea ice by adding tensile strength. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 20(1), 185–198. doi: 10.1175/2009JPO4105.1.Google Scholar

Lecomte, O. (2014). Influence of Snow Processes on Sea Ice: A Model Study. Université catholique de Louvain, Phd Thesis.Google Scholar

Lemieux, J.-F., Tremblay, B., Sedláček, J., Tupper, P., Thomas, S., Huard, D. and Auclair, J.-P. (2010). Improving the numerical convergence of viscous–plastic sea ice models with the Jacobian-free Newton Krylov method. Journal of Computational Physics, 229, 2840–2852. doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2009.12.011.Google Scholar

Lipscomb, W.H. (2001). Remapping the thickness distribution in sea ice models, Journal of Geophysical Research, 106(C7), 13989–14000.Google Scholar

Lipscomb, W.H., Hunke, E.C., Maslowski, W. and Jakacki, J. (2007). Ridging, strength, and stability in high-resolution sea ice models. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, C03S91. doi: 10.1029/2005JC003355.Google Scholar

Losch, M., Fuchs, A., Lemieux, J.-F. and Vanselow, A. (2014). A parallel Jacobian-free Newton–Krylov solver for a coupled sea ice-ocean model. Journal of Computational Physics, 257, 901–911. doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2013.09.026.Google Scholar

Lüpkes, C., Gryanik, V.M., Hartmann, J. and Andreas, E.L. (2012). A parameterization, based on sea ice morphology, of the neutral atmospheric drag coefficients for weather prediction and climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, D13112. doi: 10.1029/2012JD017630.Google Scholar

Malmgren, F. and Geofysisk Institutt. (1927). On the Properties of Sea-Ice. AS John Griegs Boktrykkeri.Google Scholar

Maykut, G.A. and Untersteiner, N. (1971). Some results from a time-dependent thermodynamic model of sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 76, 1550–1575.Google Scholar

Maykut, G.A. (1986). The Surface Heat and Mass Balance: The Geophysics of Sea Ice. Springer, 395–463.Google Scholar

Notz, D. (2012). Challenges in simulating sea ice in Earth system models. WIREs Climate Change. doi: 10.1002/wcc.189.Google Scholar

Rabatel, M., Labbé, S., and Weiss, J. (2015). Dynamics of an assembly of rigid ice floes. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, 120, 5887–5909. doi: 10.1002/2015JC010909Google Scholar

Rampal, P., Bouillon, S., Ólason, E. and Morlighem, M. (2016). neXtSIM: a new Lagrangian sea ice model. The Cryosphere Discussion, 10(3), 5885–5941. doi: 10.5194/tcd-9-5885-2015.Google Scholar

Rothrock, D.A. (1975). The energetics of the plastic deformation of pack ice by ridging. Journal of Geophysical Research, 80(33), 4514–4519.Google Scholar

Sayed, M. and Carrieres, T. (1999). Overview of a new operational ice model. Proceedings of the Ninth (1999) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Volume II, 622–627, Brest, France, May 30–June 4, 1999.Google Scholar

Schmidt, G.A., Bitz, C., Mikolajewicz, and Tremblay, L.-B. (2004). Ice-ocean boundary conditions for coupled models. Ocean Modelling, 7, 59–74. doi: 10.1016/S1463-5003(03)00030-1.Google Scholar

Semtner, A.J. (1976). A model for the thermodynamic growth of sea ice in numerical investigations of climate. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 6, 379–389.Google Scholar

Semtner, A.J. (1984). On modelling the seasonal thermodynamic cycle of sea ice in studies of climatic change. Climatic Change, 6, 27. doi: 10.1007/BF00141666.Google Scholar

Squire, V.A. (2007). Of ocean waves and sea-ice revisited. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 49(2), 110–133.Google Scholar

Steele, M. (1992). Sea ice melting and floe geometry in a simple ice-ocean model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 97(C11), 17729–17738.Google Scholar

Thorndike, A.S., Rothrock, D.A., Maykut, G.A. and Colony, R. (1975). The thickness distribution of sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research, 80(33), 4501–4513.Google Scholar

Tsamados, M., Feltham, D.L. and Wilchinsky, A.V. (2013). Impact of a new anisotropic rheology on simulations of Arctic sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, 118, 91–107. doi: 10.1029/2012JC007990.Google Scholar

Tsamados, M., Feltham, D.L., Schroeder, D., Flocco, D., Farrell, S.L., Kurtz, N., Laxon, S.W. and Bacon, S. (2014). Impact of variable atmospheric and oceanic form drag on simulations of Arctic sea ice. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 44(5), 1329–1353. doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-13-0215.1.Google Scholar

Turner, A.K. and Hunke, E.C. (2015). Impacts of a mushy‐layer thermodynamic approach in global sea‐ice simulations using the CICE sea‐ice model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 120(2), 1253–1275. doi: 10.1002/2014JC010358.Google Scholar

Vancoppenolle, M., Fichefet, T., Goosse, H. and Bouillon, S. (2009a). Simulating the mass balance and salinity of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. 1. Model description and validation. Ocean Modelling, 27, 33–53. doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.10.005.Google Scholar

Vancoppenolle, M., Fichefet, T., Goosse, H. and Bouillon, S. (2009b). Simulating the mass balance and salinity of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. 2. Importance of sea ice salinity variations. Ocean Modelling, 27, 54–69. doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.11.003.Google Scholar

Wadhams, P., Squire, V.A., Goodman, D.J., Cowan, A.M., and Moore, S.C. (1988). The attenuation rates of ocean waves in the marginal ice zone. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(C6), 6799–6818.Google Scholar

Williams, T.D., Bennetts, L.G., Squire, V.A., Dumont, D. and Bertino, L. (2013a). Wave–ice interactions in the marginal ice zone. Part 1: Theoretical foundations. Ocean Modelling, 71, 81–91. doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2013.05.010.Google Scholar

Williams, T.D., Bennetts, L.G., Squire, V.A., Dumont, D. and Bertino, L. (2013b). Wave–ice interactions in the marginal ice zone. Part 2: Numerical implementation and sensitivity studies along 1D transects of the ocean surface. Ocean Modelling, 71, 92–101. doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2013.05.011.Google Scholar

Worster, M.G. (1992). The Dynamics of Mushy Layers. Interactive Dynamics of Convection and Solidification, NATO ASI Series, 219, 113–138, Kluwer.Google Scholar

Zhang, J., and Hibler, W.D. (1997). On an efficient numerical method for modeling sea ice dynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102(C4), 8691–8702.Google Scholar

Zhang, J., Schweiger, A., Steele, M. and Stern, H. (2015). Sea ice floe size distribution in the marginal ice zone: Theory and numerical experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, 120, 3484–3498. doi: 10.1002/2015JC010770.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.