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Abstract Models struggle to accurately simulate observed sea ice thickness changes, which could be partially due to inadequate representation of thermodynamic processes. We analyzed co‐located winter observations of the Arctic sea ice from the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate for evaluating and improving thermodynamic processes in sea ice models, aiming to enable more accurate predictions of the warming climate system. We model the sea ice and snow heat conduction for observed transects forced by realistic boundary conditions to understand the impact of the non‐resolved meter‐scale snow and sea ice thickness heterogeneity on horizontal heat conduction. Neglecting horizontal processes causes underestimating the conductive heat flux of 10% or more. Furthermore, comparing model results to independent temperature observations reveals a ∼5 K surface temperature overestimation over ice thinner than 1 m, attributed to shortcomings in parameterizing surface turbulent and radiative fluxes rather than the conduction. Assessing the model deficiencies and parameterizing these unresolved processes is required for improved sea ice representation.
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Snow redistribution onto young sea ice: Observations and implications for climate models
Vertical heat conduction through young ice is a major source of wintertime sea ice growth in the Arctic. However, field observations indicate that young ice preferentially accumulates wind-blown snow, resulting in greater snow thickness on young ice than would be expected from precipitation alone, and hence greater snow thickness on young ice than climate models represent. As snow has a low thermal conductivity, this additional snow thickness due to redistribution will reduce the actual heat conduction. We present new observations from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate Expedition which show that young ice rapidly accumulates a snow thickness of 2.5–8 cm, when wind-blown snow is available from the nearby mature ice. By applying a simple redistribution scheme and heat flux model to simulated conditions from the Community Earth System Model 2.0, we suggest that neglecting this snow redistribution onto young ice could result in the potential overestimation of conductive heat flux—and hence ice growth rates—by 3–8% on average in the Arctic in the winter in the absence of climate feedbacks. The impacts of snow redistribution are highest in the springtime and in coastal regions.
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- PAR ID:
- 10394099
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2325-1026
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00115
