Abstract:

In an effort to facilitate the Chinese Arctic Research Expedition in summer 2010 (CHINARE 2010), numerical experiments of sea ice forecasting for the Arctic Ocean were conducted. A regional Arctic configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) is the choice of the coupled ice-ocean model for forecasting sea ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean. The numerical weather prediction of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Global Forecast System (NCEP GPS) is chosen as the atmospheric forcing, and two different satellite-derived sea ice products are tested as initialization: 1) the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and 2) the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). Forecast skill assessments of the sea ice concentration fields from these numerical experiments are presented.

Key words: sea ice forecast, ice-ocean coupled model, Arctic