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A Coupled Ice-Ocean Model in the Pan-Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean: Simulation of Seasonal Cycles

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Abstract

A coupled ice-ocean model is configured for the pan-Arctic and northern North Atlantic Ocean with a 27.5 km resolution. The model is driven by the daily atmospheric climatology averaged from the 40-year NCEP reanalysis (1958–1997). The ocean model is the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), while the sea ice model is based on a full thermodynamical and dynamical model with plastic-viscous rheology. A sea ice model with multiple categories of thickness is utilized. A systematic model-data comparison was conducted. This model reasonably reproduces seasonal cycles of both the sea ice and the ocean. Climatological sea ice areas derived from historical data are used to validate the ice model performance. The simulated sea ice cover reaches a maximum of 14 × 106 km2 in winter and a minimum of 6.7 × 106 km2 in summer. This is close to the 95-year climatology with a maximum of 13.3 × 106 km2 in winter and a minimum of 7 × 106 km2 in summer. The simulated general circulation in the Arctic Ocean, the GIN (Greenland, Iceland, and Norwegian) seas, and northern North Atlantic Ocean are qualitatively consistent with historical mapping. It is found that the low winter salinity or freshwater in the Canada Basin tends to converge due to the strong anticyclonic atmospheric circulation that drives the anticyclonic ocean surface current, while low summer salinity or freshwater tends to spread inside the Arctic and exports out of the Arctic due to the relaxing wind field. It is also found that the warm, saline Atlantic Water has little seasonal variation, based on both simulation and observations. Seasonal cycles of temperature and salinity at several representative locations reveals regional features that characterize different water mass properties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, U.S.A.

    Jia Wang & Meibing Jin

  2. Center for Marine Environmental Forecasts, State Oceanic Administration, Beijing, China

    Qinzheng Liu

  3. Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Motoyoshi Ikeda

  4. Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Mont-Joli, Quebec, G5H 3Z4, Canada

    Francois J. Saucier

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  1. Jia Wang
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  2. Qinzheng Liu
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  3. Meibing Jin
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  4. Motoyoshi Ikeda
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  5. Francois J. Saucier
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Correspondence to Jia Wang.

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Wang, J., Liu, Q., Jin, M. et al. A Coupled Ice-Ocean Model in the Pan-Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean: Simulation of Seasonal Cycles. J Oceanogr 61, 213–233 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-005-0033-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-005-0033-3

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