Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (Dec 2019)
The importance of capturing late melt season sea ice conditions for modeling the western Arctic ocean boundary layer
Abstract
To better understand the response of the western Arctic upper ocean to late summer ice-ocean interactions, a range of surface, interior, and basal sea ice conditions were simulated in a 1-D turbulent boundary layer model. In-ice and under-ice autonomous observations from the 2014 Marginal Ice Zone Experiment provided a complete characterization of the late melt-season sea ice and were used to set initial conditions, update boundary conditions, and conduct model validation studies. Results show that underestimates of open water and melt pond fraction at the sea ice surface had the largest influence on ocean-to-ice turbulent heat fluxes reducing basal melt rates by as much as 32%. This substantial reduction in latent heat loss was attributed to underestimates of open water areas and the exclusion of melt ponds by low-resolution synthetic aperture radar imagery. However, the greatest overall effect on the ice-ocean boundary layer came from mischaracterizations of basal roughness, with smooth ice scenarios resulting in 7 m of summer halocline shoaling and preservation of the near-surface temperature maximum. Rough ice conditions showed a 23% deepening of the mixed layer and erosion of heat storage above 40 m. Adjustments of conductive heat fluxes had little effect on the near-interface heat budget due to small internal thermal gradients within the late summer sea ice. Results from the 1-D boundary layer simulations highlight the most influential components of sea ice structure during late summer conditions and provide the magnitude of errors expected when ice conditions are mischaracterized.
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