Arctic sea ice dynamics at 1km resolution with SI3

Sea ice plays a key role setting up a climate state of the Polar Oceans through moderating interactions between the ocean and atmosphere. As it is seen from satellite data, on the synoptic and sub-seasonal time-scales sea ice partly moves as a solid body – large areas of sea ice cover drift as single polygons – and partly deforms as a plastic material, shearing along the deformation lines – linear kinematic features (leads). Leads are important for the heat fluxes and also for navigational safety.

In this study we focus on winter sea ice. Currently sea ice is thinning and more deformable; thinner ice is easier to crack. We compare the effect of different rheologies on sea ice and have developed a very high resolution (1 km) Arctic model, which allows for examining lead formation. The model shows a step change in behaviour compared to the previous high-resolution configuration (3 km). Specifically, we compare the EVP and EAP sea ice rheologies; these show substantial differences in the number and orientation of leads. EAP produces diamond patterns which has so far been difficult to create in models. The stand-alone sea ice model simulations will be coupled to ocean to examine eddy interaction.

We acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 821926 (IMMERSE project) and from the LTS-S CLASS Programme (grant NE/R015953/1). The work reflects only the authors’ view; the European Commission and their executive agency are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information the work contains. This work also used the ARCHER-II UK National Supercomputing Service and JASMIN, the UK collaborative data analysis facility.