Atmosphere – Sea Ice Coupling in the Navy’s Global Coupled Modeling System: Diagnosing Polar Prediction using the sea ice models, CICE4 and CICE5, coupled with the NAVGEM Atmospheric Model.

Abstract:

The United States Naval Research Laboratory is developing a global coupled model for sub-seasonal to seasonal predictions under the Earth System Prediction Capability national program. The Navy’s full Earth System coupled model has a dynamic atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice. This presentation only examines atmosphere – sea ice coupling without using a dynamic ocean to isolate interactions. The Navy’s Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) is used for the atmospheric model and two versions of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Community sea ICe Code (CICE version 4 and 5) are used for sea ice model. Data assimilative five day hindcasts are performed from March 2014 to September 2014 using NAVGEM-CICE4 and NAVGEM-CICE5 configurations. Differences in sea ice and low-level temperatures are examined in detail. The NAVGEM-CICE5 configuration results in a larger coverage of sea ice compared to the NAVGEM-CICE4 configuration, and this is consistent with thicker sea ice in the NAVGEM-CICE5 runs. Low-level temperatures in the NAVGEM-CICE4 are greater during Northern Hemisphere spring compared to the NAVGEM-CICE5 configuration. NAVGEM-CICE5 has larger albedos compared to the NAVGEM-CICE4 configuration and may be a primary cause in the lower low-level temperatures. Lastly, these results are discussed in relation to the stand-alone NAVGEM.