Sea Ice Model

A six-layer sea-ice thermodynamic model predicts the local melting and freezing of ice, essentially as in Semtner (1976) using standard vertical finite-difference techniques. Heat diffuses linearly through the ice, and the total thickness can change by melting of the upper layer and by freezing or melting on the bottom surface. Fractional areal cover is included as in Hibler (1979) and Harvey (1988). For present-day runs, sea-ice advection is included using the cavitating-fluid model of Flato and Hibler (1990, 1992) in which the ice resists compressive stresses but offers no resistance to divergence or shear, and using prescribed ocean currents.


Comments and Questions

12/8/97