First look at Arctic eddies in a kilometric NEMO5 simulation

Arctic eddies are important for mixing and heat exchange between sea ice and ocean. The effect carries over to the ecosystem to cause spatial patterns of primary production up to fish distribution. Strong stratification makes the Rossby radius of eddies on Arctic shelve very small resulting in spatial gradients in eddy sizes over the Arctic. Limited resolution of models in the past has been preventing correct representation. We present eddy statistics in a kilometric Arctic Ocean NEMO-SI3 model, using NEMO version 5.0 with the RK3 advection scheme and the TKE mixing scheme. The sea ice rheology is aEVP. We aim to validate the number of eddies as well as eddy sizes with available data from satellite and moorings. This simulation was done as part of the CANARI project, which includes examination of future sea ice loss impact on mixing and the possibility of accelerated sea ice decline. This work was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project CANARI NE/W004984/1. This work used the ARCHER2 UK National Supercomputing Service (https://www.archer2.ac.uk).