Sea Ice Rheology Experiment (SIREx): 2. Evaluating Linear Kinematic Features in High-Resolution Sea Ice Simulations

Nils Hutter , Amélie Bouchat , Frédéric Dupont , Dmitry Dukhovskoy , Nikolay Koldunov , Younjoo J. Lee , Jean-François Lemieux , Camille Lique (1) , Martin Losch , Wieslaw Maslowski , Paul G. Myers , Einar Ólason , Pierre Rampal (2) , Till Rasmussen , Claude Talandier (1) , Bruno Tremblay , Qiang Wang

1 LOPS - Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale
2 IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement

Simulating sea ice drift and deformation in the Arctic Ocean is still a challenge because of the multiscale interaction of sea ice floes that compose the Arctic Sea ice cover. The Sea Ice Rheology Experiment (SIREx) is a model intercomparison project of the Forum of Arctic Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS). In SIREx, skill metrics are designed to evaluate different recently suggested approaches for modeling linear kinematic features (LKFs) to provide guidance for modeling small-scale deformation. These LKFs are narrow bands of localized deformation that can be observed in satellite images and also form in high resolution sea ice simulations. In this contribution, spatial and temporal properties of LKFs are assessed in 36 simulations of state-of-the-art sea ice models and compared to deformation features derived from the RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System. All simulations produce LKFs, but only very few models realistically simulate at least some statistics of LKF properties such as densities, lengths, or growth rates. All SIREx models overestimate the angle of fracture between conjugate pairs of LKFs and LKF lifetimes pointing to inaccurate model physics. The temporal and spatial resolution of a simulation and the spatial resolution of atmospheric boundary condition affect simulated LKFs as much as the model's sea ice rheology and numerics. Only in very high resolution simulations (≤2 km) the concentration and thickness anomalies along LKFs are large enough to affect air-ice-ocean interaction processes.

Mots clés: Sea Ice Deformation; rheology; model intercomparison project; linear kinematic features; sea ice modeling; sea ice observations

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Océanographie

Nils Hutter, Amélie Bouchat, Frédéric Dupont, Dmitry Dukhovskoy, Nikolay Koldunov, et al.. Sea Ice Rheology Experiment (SIREx): 2. Evaluating Linear Kinematic Features in High-Resolution Sea Ice Simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans, 2022, 127, ⟨10.1029/2021JC017666⟩. ⟨insu-03683298⟩