The Influences of Surface Waves on the Modeling of Arctic Sea Ice

Under ongoing global warming, Arctic sea-ice extent and thickness have declined markedly in recent decades, while open-water area has expanded. One immediate consequence is an intensification of wave activity due to enlarged fetches, which in turn strengthens wave–ice interactions. Compared with the understanding of ice impacts on waves, the response of sea-ice evolution to wave effects remains less well constrained—particularly from a basin-scale, climatological perspective. Here, using the Los Alamos sea-ice model (CICE), we incorporate four wave-related processes — Stokes drift, wave radiation stress, wave-induced mixing, and wave-induced fracture — and conduct a 10-yr simulation to quantify both the individual and combined impacts of these processes on Arctic sea-ice states. The results show that there are seasonal variations in the influence of ocean waves on sea ice concentration. However, the variations in modeled sea ice volume are not always the same for each year both qualitatively and quantitatively. In terms of the degree of influence, wave-induced ice fracture has the strongest influence on summer, autumn, and annual average sea ice concentration. But for specific periods and sea areas, the mechanism with the greatest influence may vary.