Improving Arctic sea-ice thickness estimates with the assimilation of CryoSat-2 summer observations

Abstract

Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice has had significant impacts on the Arctic Ocean and many outer Arctic regions. It is therefore urgently needed to reliably estimate Arctic sea-ice thickness (SIT) by combined use of available observation and numerical modeling. Here, for the first time, we assimilate the latest CryoSat-2 summer SIT data into a coupled ice-ocean model. In particular, an Incremental Analysis Update scheme is implemented to overcome the discontinuity brought by assimilating biweekly SIT and daily sea ice concentration data. Along with an improvement in sea ice volume, our SIT estimates have smaller errors than that without SIT assimilation in areas where the sea ice is roughest and experiences strong deformation, e.g., around the Fram Strait and Greenland. This study suggests that the newly-developed CryoSat-2 SIT product, when assimilated properly with our approach, has great potential for Arctic sea ice simulation and prediction.

The Role of Non‐Local Effects on Surface Sensible Heat Flux Under Different Types of Thermal Structures Over the Arctic Sea‐Ice Surface

“…Arctic warming has attracted extensive attention, not only for its accompanying fast‐decreasing sea ice but also for the more sensitive global climate system (Hartfield et al., 2018; Kwok, 2018; Landrum & Holland, 2020; Maure et al., 2023; Min et al., 2023). Processes occurring in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) play an essential role in understanding the ongoing climate changes in the Arctic (Wendisch et al., 2019; Wetzel & Bruemmer, 2011).…”

Assimilating Summer Sea‐Ice Thickness Observations Improves Arctic Sea‐Ice Forecast

“…Min et al. (2023) demonstrated that assimilation of summer SIT corrects the overestimation in the Combined Model and Satellite Thickness (CMST; Mu et al., 2018b) product. Y.‐F.…”