The 5th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography

13.4
ASSIMILATION OF OBSERVED ICE MOTIONS INTO A SEA ICE THICKNESS DISTRIBUTION MODEL

Walter N. Meier, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO; and J. A. Maslanik

Observed Arctic ice motions from SSM/I 85 GHz and in situ buoys are assimilated into a dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice thickness distribution model. The effects of the assimilation are compared for a 2-category and a 28-category ice thickness distribution and for viscous-plastic and elastic viscous-plastic dynamics implementations. Comparisons show that the ice thickness distribution and dynamics effects on modeled ice motion are less than effect of the assimilated observed motions. The assimilation improves ice motions over the stand-alone model runs. An annual cycle of model-derived products are produced for the stand-alone and assimilated model runs and fields of ice thickness, ice concentration, and ice export are compared

The 5th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography