The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) coupled global climatemodel was used to investigate the sensitivity of sea ice to improved representations of sea-iceradiative processes: (1) a more sophisticated su...The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) coupled global climatemodel was used to investigate the sensitivity of sea ice to improved representations of sea-iceradiative processes: (1) a more sophisticated surface albedo scheme and (2) the penetration of solarradiation in sea ice. The results show that the large-scale sea-ice conditions are very sensitiveto the aforementioned parameteriza-tions. Although the more sophisticated surface albedo schemeproduces a more realistic seasonal cycle of the surface albedo as compared with the baselinesimulation, the resulting higher albedo relative to the baseline simulation generates much more andthicker ice in the arctic. The penetration of solar radiation in sea-ice itself tends to reduce theice cover and thickness in the entire arctic and the western antarctic, and increase the ice coverand thickness in the eastern antarctic. The combination of (1) and (2) significantly improves thesimulations of the average ice thickness and its spatial distribution in the arctic. The atmosphericresponses associated with sea-ice changes were also discussed. While improvements are seen,particularly of the ice thickness distribution, there are still some unrealistic aspects that willrequire further improvements to the sea-ice component.展开更多
基金supported by the NASA polar program and National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 40233032 and 40376006.
文摘The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) coupled global climatemodel was used to investigate the sensitivity of sea ice to improved representations of sea-iceradiative processes: (1) a more sophisticated surface albedo scheme and (2) the penetration of solarradiation in sea ice. The results show that the large-scale sea-ice conditions are very sensitiveto the aforementioned parameteriza-tions. Although the more sophisticated surface albedo schemeproduces a more realistic seasonal cycle of the surface albedo as compared with the baselinesimulation, the resulting higher albedo relative to the baseline simulation generates much more andthicker ice in the arctic. The penetration of solar radiation in sea-ice itself tends to reduce theice cover and thickness in the entire arctic and the western antarctic, and increase the ice coverand thickness in the eastern antarctic. The combination of (1) and (2) significantly improves thesimulations of the average ice thickness and its spatial distribution in the arctic. The atmosphericresponses associated with sea-ice changes were also discussed. While improvements are seen,particularly of the ice thickness distribution, there are still some unrealistic aspects that willrequire further improvements to the sea-ice component.