Sea ice and polar climate in the NCAR CSM
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Div.
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
The Climate System Model (CSM) consists of atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea-ice components linked by a flux coupler, which computes fluxes of energy and momentum between components. The sea-ice component consists of a thermodynamic formulation for ice, snow, and leads within the ice pack, and ice dynamics using the cavitating-fluid ice rheology, which allows for the compressive strength of ice but ignores shear viscosity. The results of a 300-yr climate simulation are presented, with the focus on sea ice and the atmospheric forcing over sea ice in the polar regions. The atmospheric model results are compared to analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and other observational sources. The sea-ice concentrations and velocities are compared to satellite observational data. The atmospheric sea level pressure (SLP) in CSM exhibits a high in the central Arctic displaced poleward from the observed Beaufort high. The Southern Hemisphere SLP over sea ice is generally 5 mb lower than observed. Air temperatures over sea ice in both hemispheres exhibit cold biases of 2--4 K. The precipitation-minus-evaporation fields in both hemispheres are greatly improved over those from earlier versions of the atmospheric GCM.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 638276
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 11, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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