Exploratory sea-ice simulations: Comparing idealized sea-ice compression simulations using a continuum and discrete element method models

Continuum sea-ice models are increasingly being applied to high-resolution settings, while there are still open questions about the physics governing sea-ice deformation on these resolutions. Simultaneously, discrete element method (DEM) models are now starting to be used to address questions regarding specific processes within sea-ice deformation. A direct comparison of both methods has not been done yet, as the spatial resolution differs on several orders of magnitude and the computational costs of high-resolution DEM simulations over large areas of sea ice are high. Here, we will present a comparison of idealized simulations of sea-ice convergence utilizing both methods. We used the neXtSIM sea-ice model as the continuum model and HiDEM as the DEM model. Sea-ice deformation in neXtSIM is determined by a brittle rheology with Lagrangian sea-ice advection. In HiDEM, the ice is described by spherical particles connected by beams, which can fail as the ice cover locally reaches a critical stress state. In both cases, we simulate the same sea-ice area and use the same forcing, yet the spatial resolution differs. This setup enables us to investigate the sea-ice deformation yielding from both methods. We compare the resulting ice thickness distributions and ice ridge formation patterns and highlight the similarities and differences between both methods.