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High-frequency and meso-scale winter sea-ice variability in the Southern Ocean in a high-resolution global ocean model

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Abstract

This study is on high-frequency temporal variability (HFV) and meso-scale spatial variability (MSV) of winter sea-ice drift in the Southern Ocean simulated with a global high-resolution (0.1°) sea ice-ocean model. Hourly model output is used to distinguish MSV characteristics via patterns of mean kinetic energy (MKE) and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) of ice drift, surface currents, and wind stress, and HFV characteristics via time series of raw variables and correlations. We find that (1) along the ice edge, the MSV of ice drift coincides with that of surface currents, in particular such due to ocean eddies; (2) along the coast, the MKE of ice drift is substantially larger than its TKE and coincides with the MKE of wind stress; (3) in the interior of the ice pack, the TKE of ice drift is larger than its MKE, mostly following the TKE pattern of wind stress; (4) the HFV of ice drift is dominated by weather events, and, in the absence of tidal currents, locally and to a much smaller degree by inertial oscillations; (5) along the ice edge, the curl of the ice drift is highly correlated with that of surface currents, mostly reflecting the impact of ocean eddies. Where ocean eddies occur and the ice is relatively thin, ice velocity is characterized by enhanced relative vorticity, largely matching that of surface currents. Along the ice edge, ocean eddies produce distinct ice filaments, the realism of which is largely confirmed by high-resolution satellite passive-microwave data.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Lars Kaleschke and Ronald Kwok (NASA-JPL) for their input on the status of high-resolution satellite-derived ice concentration and drift, and to Irina Fast (DKRZ) for her technical support on the TP6M-NCEP simulations. We thank the STORM consortium (https://www.dkrz.de/Klimaforschung-en/konsortial-en/storm-en) for realizing the 0.1° MPIOM simulations. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their thorough reviews and their constructive comments that helped us improve this contribution considerably.

Funding

This work was mainly funded through short-term Max-Planck-Society research stipends. The SSMI derived sea-ice concentration using the ASI algorithm was provided by the Integrated Climate Data Center (ICDC), http://icdc.zmaw.de, University of Hamburg, Germany. The AMSR2 data was provided by Lars Kaleschke (Hamburg University), processed by Xiangshan Tian-Kunze (Hamburg University), and kindly reprocessed by Stefan Kern (ICDC). AMSR2 is mounted on the GCOM-W1 satellite, operated by JAXA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Achim Stössel

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany

    Jin-Song von Storch, Dirk Notz & Helmuth Haak

  3. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Rüdiger Gerdes

  4. Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

    Rüdiger Gerdes

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  1. Achim Stössel
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Correspondence to Achim Stössel.

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Stössel, A., von Storch, JS., Notz, D. et al. High-frequency and meso-scale winter sea-ice variability in the Southern Ocean in a high-resolution global ocean model. Ocean Dynamics 68, 347–361 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-018-1135-y

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