• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 2015

In this study, the characteristics of sea ice initial conditions generated from a global ocean and sea ice prediction system, the Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO) - Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE)/NEMOVAR were analyzed for the period June 2013 to May 2014 over the Arctic region. For the purpose, the observed and reanalyzed data were used to compare with the sea ice initial conditions. Results indicated that the variability of the monthly sea ice extent and thickness in model initial conditions were well represented as compared to the observation, while it was found that the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice in initial data were narrower and thinner than those in reanalysis and observation for the period. The reason for the narrower sea ice extent in model initial conditions seems to be due to the fact that the initial sea ice concentration at the boundary area of sea ice was about 20 percent less than the reanalysis data. Also, the reason for the thinner sea-ice thickness in the Arctic region is due to the underestimation of Arctic sea ice thickness (about 60 cm) of the model initial conditions in the Arctic Ocean area adjacent to Greenland and Arctic archipelago where thick sea ice appears all the year round.