WIce-FOAM 1.0: coupled dynamic and thermodynamic modelling of heterogeneous sea ice and waves using OpenFOAM-v2306

Marquart, Rutger; Alberello, Alberto; Bogaers, Alfred; De Santi, Francesca; Vichi, Marcello

doi:10.5194/gmd-18-10053-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 24

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-10053-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-10053-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 24

Model description paper

|

15 Dec 2025

Model description paper |

| 15 Dec 2025

WIce-FOAM 1.0: coupled dynamic and thermodynamic modelling of heterogeneous sea ice and waves using OpenFOAM-v2306

Rutger Marquart, Alberto Alberello, Alfred Bogaers, Francesca De Santi, and Marcello Vichi

Data sets

WIce-FOAM 1.0: Code and data availability Rutger Marquart et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16681435

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Video supplement

Simulation results on the evolution of sea ice thickness and shear viscosity Rutger Marquart et al. https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.28956746.v1

Short summary

This study developed a kilometre-scale sea-ice model in OpenFOAM that couples dynamic and thermodynamic processes for two types of ice, solid-like ice floes and fluid-like grease ice, under wave forcing. This model can help to improve data input for large-scale sea-ice models. Results show a linear relationship between the proportion of ice floes in the field and the overall viscosity. Additionally, we found that viscosity responds nonlinearly to the inclusion of thermodynamic sea-ice growth.