Articles | Volume 10, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-1009-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-1009-2017
Model evaluation paper
 | 
03 Mar 2017
Model evaluation paper |  | 03 Mar 2017

Comparing sea ice, hydrography and circulation between NEMO3.6 LIM3 and LIM2

Petteri Uotila, Doroteaciro Iovino, Martin Vancoppenolle, Mikko Lensu, and Clement Rousset

Abstract. A set of hindcast simulations with the new version 3.6 of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean–ice model in the ORCA1 configuration and forced by the DRAKKAR Forcing Set version 5.2 (DFS5.2) atmospheric data was performed from 1958 to 2012. Simulations differed in their sea-ice component: the old standard version Louvain-la-Neuve Sea Ice Model (LIM2) and its successor LIM3. Main differences between these sea-ice models are the parameterisations of sub-grid-scale sea-ice thickness distribution, ice deformation, thermodynamic processes, and sea-ice salinity. Our main objective was to analyse the response of the ocean–ice system sensitivity to the change in sea-ice physics. Additional sensitivity simulations were carried out for the attribution of observed differences between the two main simulations.

In the Arctic, NEMO-LIM3 compares better with observations by realistically reproducing the sea-ice extent decline during the last few decades due to its multi-category sea-ice thickness. In the Antarctic, NEMO-LIM3 more realistically simulates the seasonal evolution of sea-ice extent than NEMO-LIM2. In terms of oceanic properties, improvements are not as evident, although NEMO-LIM3 reproduces a more realistic hydrography in the Labrador Sea and in the Arctic Ocean, including a reduced cold temperature bias of the Arctic Intermediate Water at 250 m. In the extra-polar regions, the oceanographic conditions of the two NEMO-LIM versions remain relatively similar, although they slowly drift apart over decades. This drift is probably due to a stronger deep water formation around Antarctica in LIM3.

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Short summary
We performed ocean model simulations with new and old sea-ice components. Sea ice improved in the new model compared to the earlier one due to better model physics. In the ocean, the largest differences are confined close to the surface within and near the sea-ice zone. The global ocean circulation slowly deviates between the simulations due to dissimilar sea ice in the deep water formation regions, such as the North Atlantic and Antarctic.