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Improving the spatial distribution of modeled Arctic sea ice thickness
Author(s) -
Miller Paul A.,
Laxon Seymour W.,
Feltham Daniel L.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl023622
Subject(s) - sea ice , arctic ice pack , geology , sea ice thickness , beaufort sea , spatial distribution , arctic , climatology , fast ice , submarine , drift ice , antarctic sea ice , oceanography , remote sensing
The spatial distribution of ice thickness/draft in the Arctic Ocean is examined using a sea ice model. A comparison of model predictions with submarine observations of sea ice draft made during cruises between 1987 and 1997 reveals that the model has the same deficiencies found in previous studies, namely ice that is too thick in the Beaufort Sea and too thin near the North Pole. We find that increasing the large scale shear strength of the sea ice leads to substantial improvements in the model's spatial distribution of sea ice thickness, and simultaneously improves the agreement between modeled and ERS‐derived 1993–2001 mean winter ice thickness.