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Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow

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Fichefet, Thierry [UCL] Tartinville, B Goosse, Hugues [UCL]

The sensitivity of a global, coarse-resolution ice-ocean model to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of the snow overlaying Antarctic sea ice (k(sant)) is investigated. This study was motivated by recent observations made in the eastern sector of the Southern Ocean and in the Bellingshausen, Amundsen, and Ross Seas, which suggest that the value of k(sant) usually used in large-scale sea ice models is about a factor two too high. When k(sant) is reduced by half in our model, the average thickness of the Antarctic ice pack decreases by 10 cm (10%) and the geographical distributions of snow and ice thicknesses become mon realistic. A strengthening of the Southern Ocean stratification and a concomitant weakening of the Antarctic Bottom Water meridional overturning are also noticed. This ultimately impacts on the sensible heat flux from the ocean to the ice and thus on the rate of thermodynamic ice growth.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Publication date 2000
Language Anglais
Journal information "Geophysical Research Letters" - Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 401-404 (2000)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Amer Geophysical Union (Washington)
issn 0094-8276
e-issn 1944-8007
Publication status Publié
Affiliations UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique
UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate
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Bibliographic reference Fichefet, Thierry ; Tartinville, B ; Goosse, Hugues. Sensitivity of the Antarctic sea ice to the thermal conductivity of snow. In: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 401-404 (2000)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/43736