Sea ice representation in sea ice model of CICE and Icepack

<p>Sea ice is a critical component of the Earth system, playing an important role in high-latitude<br>surface radiation balance and heat, moisture and momentum exchange between atmosphere<br>and ocean. In recent years, rapid changes have been occurring in Arctic sea ice, including<br>decline in ice extent/area, decreasing in ice thickness and volume, and shifting towards a first-<br>year ice (FYI) dominated, rather than multi-year ice (MYI) dominated ice pack. These are one<br>of the most well-known and striking examples of climate change. However, representing<br>these changes in the model is still in question since most of our knowledge is based on MYI.<br>CICE is a sea ice model developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory since 1994. It is<br>widely used to simulate the growth, melt and movement of sea ice, and to resolve the<br>biogeochemical processes. Its column version, Icepack, has been separated from CICE after<br>CICE V5.1.2, which provides additional opportunity for simulating the evolution of drifting<br>sea ice floes. How about the representation of sea ice in a column model (Icepack) and a 3d<br>model (CICE)? In 2012, an ice mass balance buoy (IMB) and a Spectral Radiation Buoy<br>(SRB) were deployed on FYI near the North Pole, and later drifted towards Fram Strait. These<br>buoys collected a complete summer melt season of in-band (350-800 nm) spectral solar<br>radiation and sea ice mass balance data. In this study, we apply the Icepack (version 1.1.1)<br>and CICE (version 5.1.2) to investigate the seasonal evolution of sea ice in 2012 in these two models, and<br>assess how well the physical processes are represented in CICE and Icepack, with the focus<br>on the surface changes.</p>