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Ocean sea-ice modelling in the Southern Ocean around Indian Antarctic stations

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Abstract

An eddy-resolving coupled ocean sea-ice modelling is carried out in the Southern Ocean region (9\(^{\circ }\)–78\(^{\circ }\)E; 51\(^{\circ }\)–71\(^{\circ }\)S) using the MITgcm. The model domain incorporates the Indian Antarctic stations, Maitri (11.7\({^{\circ }}\)E; 70.7\({^{\circ }}\)S) and Bharati (76.1\({^{\circ }}\)E; 69.4\({^{\circ }}\)S). The realistic simulation of the surface variables, namely, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), surface currents, sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT) is presented for the period of 1997–2012. The horizontal resolution of the model varies between 6 and 10 km. The highest vertical resolution of 5 m is taken near the surface, which gradually increases with increasing depths. The seasonal variability of the SST, SSS, SIC and currents is compared with the available observations in the region of study. It is found that the SIC of the model domain is increasing at a rate of 0.09% per month (nearly 1% per year), whereas, the SIC near Maitri and Bharati regions is increasing at a rate of 0.14 and 0.03% per month, respectively. The variability of the drift of the sea-ice is also estimated over the period of simulation. It is also found that the sea ice volume of the region increases at the rate of 0.0004 \(\hbox {km}^{3}\) per month (nearly 0.005 \(\hbox {km}^{3}\) per year). Further, it is revealed that the accumulation of sea ice around Bharati station is more as compared to Maitri station.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewer and editor for the constructive comments that led to improvement of the manuscript. AK is thankful to ISRO for providing Junior Research Fellowship. SD is thankful to the NCAOR/ISRO/DST for financial assistance in the form of research project. Thanks are also due to the NCEP/NCAR, ORAS4, HadISST, AVHRR, SOSE, GECCO2, SSM/I, and GIOMAS communities for making their data freely available for research purpose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. K Banerjee Centre of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies and M N Saha Centre of Space Studies, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, 211 002, India

    Anurag Kumar & Suneet Dwivedi

  2. Space Application Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad, 380 015, India

    D Ram Rajak

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  1. Anurag Kumar
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  2. Suneet Dwivedi
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  3. D Ram Rajak
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Correspondence to Suneet Dwivedi.

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Corresponding editor: D Shankar

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Kumar, A., Dwivedi, S. & Rajak, D.R. Ocean sea-ice modelling in the Southern Ocean around Indian Antarctic stations. J Earth Syst Sci 126, 70 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-017-0848-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-017-0848-5

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