Researchers:Jennifer Hutchings (Co-PI) and Bill Hibler (PI)
Funding Source: JAMSTEC
Collaborators: Takashi Kikuchi and Jue Inoue, JAMSTEC, Japan; Don Perovich and Jackie Richter-Menge, CRREL, USA; Carmack, E. and F. MacLaughlin, IOS, BC Canada; Heil, P., T. Worby and V. Lytle, AAD, U. Tasmania, Australia; Lauianiain, J and M. Johansson, FIMR, Finland; Rigor, I., APL/UW, Seattle, USA; Proshutinsky, Andrey, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA
The project goal is the coordinated development of a next-generation sea-ice dynamics model with observation programs to improve understanding of the contribution of sea ice dynamics to mass balance of the arctic cryosphere, and ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions.
Hibler is developing rheological models and a coupled ice-ocean model that resolves tide and inertial variability of ice drift and deformation. Hutchings is performing field work that provides validation data sets for these efforts. (Note that this project is leveraged with the SITII and SEDNA projects funded by NSF, though has a more overarching goal than SEDNA or SITII.) Hutchings led a collaborative effort to deploy a buoy strain array as part of Ice Station Polarstern in Austral winter 2004-2005. This field experiment was designed to investigate tidal effects on ice drift and deformation, and how strain-rates scale spatially. The experiment targeted investigation of the role of tides in the deformation of the ice pack, and therefore modulating ocean-atmosphere interactions. The array design also allows investigation of the geophysical spatial scaling properties of deformation, to test the hypothesis that an appropriate rheological model of pack ice is scale invarient. We are monitoring recent change in the Beaufort Sea every summer, through participation in the Institute of Ocean Sciences JWACS-JOIS cruises. Hutchings is collaborating with other field researchers to build comprehensive data bases of in-situ observations for studying the Arctic ice pack. A combination of in situ observations, satellite data and data driven deformation models are used to investigate the role of ice drift and deformation in the recently observed changes. We put this into a historical context with available data.
Improvements in models of arctic ice pack dynamics that, on implementation in GCMs and an Arctic System Model, show demonstrable influence on energy and mass fluxes across the ice-ocean-atmosphere boundary. Or we will prove the null hypothesis that high frequency deformation and rheological model does not impact these interactions. An improved understanding of the role of ice dynamics in recent ice pack change is sought, and we anticipate this will lead to model development to better reproduce the magnitude of the feedback between ice deformation and the ice mass balance.
The ice-ocean-atmosphere project is an initiative to improve our understanding of the role of sea ice in the arctic climate system. Currently the sensitivity of sea ice to changes in the system (and vice-versa) is not quantitatively understood. We target ice dynamics, which has highly non-linear response in the Arctic system. We have identified small-scale processes and misrepresented model parameterizations that may have significant impact on the sea ice state. By improving models of these processes we can aim to reduce the uncertainty in how sea ice interacts in the arctic system, improve model projections of future sea ice state and identify the role of ice dynamics in sea ice feedbacks that control the rate of future ice pack change.