The effect of snow on Antarctic sea ice simulations in a coupled atmosphere-sea ice model |
| |
| Authors: | X Wu W F Budd V I Lytle R A Massom |
| |
| Institution: | (1) Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre and Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia E-mail: X.Wu@utas.edu.au, AU;(2) Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, AU |
| |
| Abstract: | The effect of a snow cover on sea ice accretion and ablation is estimated based on the ‘zero-layer’ version sea ice model
of Semtner, and is examined using a coupled atmosphere-sea ice model including feedbacks and ice dynamics effects. When snow
is disregarded in the coupled model the averaged Antarctic sea ice becomes thicker. When only half of the snowfall predicted
by the atmospheric model is allowed to land on the ice surface sea ice gets thicker in most of the Weddell and Ross Seas but
thinner in East Antarctic in winter, with the average slightly thicker. When twice as much snowfall as predicted by the atmospheric
model is assumed to land on the ice surface sea ice also gets much thicker due to the large increase of snow-ice formation.
These results indicate the importance of the correct simulation of the snow cover over sea ice and snow-ice formation in the
Antarctic. Our results also illustrate the complex feedback effects of the snow cover in global climate models. In this study
we have also tested the use of a mean value of 0.16 Wm-1 K-1 instead of 0.31 for the thermal conductivity of snow in the coupled model, based on the most recent observations in the eastern
Antarctic and Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas, and have found that the sea ice distribution changes greatly, with the ice
becoming much thinner by about 0.2 m in the Antarctic and about 0.4 m in the Arctic on average. This implies that the magnitude
of the thermal conductivity of snow is of considerable importance for the simulation of the sea ice distribution. An appropriate
value of the thermal conductivity of snow is as crucial as the depth of the snow layer and the snowfall rate in a sea ice
model. The coupled climate models require accurate values of the effective thermal conductivity of snow from observations
for validating the simulated sea ice distribution under the present climate conditions.
Received: 20 November 1997/Accepted: 27 July 1998 |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
