Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2018-122
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2018-122
24 Oct 2018
 | 24 Oct 2018
Status: this preprint has been withdrawn by the authors.

Influence of initial stratification, wind and sea ice on the modelled oceanic circulation in Nares Strait, northwest Greenland

Lovisa Waldrop Bergman and Céline Heuzé

Abstract. Nares Strait in northwest Greenland is one of the main gateways for oceanic freshwater and heat exchanges between the Arctic and the North Atlantic. With a changing Arctic climate, understanding the processes that govern the oceanic circulation in Arctic straits has become crucial and urgent, but this cannot be done with current geographically and temporally sparse in-situ observations only. High resolution regional modelling is thus required, but costly. We here report on one-year sensitivity experiments performed with the coupled ice-ocean regional model MITgcm to determine the relative importance of wind forcing, initial stratification and sea ice thickness on the accuracy of the modelled oceanic circulation in Nares Strait. We find that the modelled basin's circulation is mainly driven by density gradients in the upper oceanic layer, making accurate initial fields of temperature and salinity essential for a realistic oceanic circulation. The influence of the wind and sea ice thickness is less important, potentially making such high resolution fields not necessary for accurate strait modelling, provided these results are valid for other sea ice models as well. Comparison with ship-based measurements collected in summer 2015 reveals the experiments to be too cold at the surface, probably because of a not-dynamic-enough sea ice cover. Although the modelled freshwater is rather accurate, large efforts need to be put into observing the ocean and the sources of freshwater continuously throughout the year to produce realistic and efficient model simulations of the Arctic Straits, key players in the entire Arctic system and global climate.

This preprint has been withdrawn.

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Lovisa Waldrop Bergman and Céline Heuzé

Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
Lovisa Waldrop Bergman and Céline Heuzé

Data sets

CTD data Petermann15 C. Heuzé and A. Wåhlin https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.893180

The ERA‐Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system D. P. Dee, S. M. Uppala, A. J. Simmons, P. Berrisford, P. Poli, S. Kobayashi, U. Andrae, M. A. Balmaseda, G. Balsamo, P. Bauer, P. Bechtold, A. C. M. Beljaars, L. van de Berg, J. Bidlot, N. Bormann, C. Delsol, R. Dragani, M. Fuentes, A. J. Geer, L. Haimberger, S. B. Healy, H. Hersbach, E. V. Hólm, L. Isaksen, P. Kållberg, M. Köhler, M. Matricardi, A. P. McNally, B. M. Monge‐Sanz, J.‐J. Morcrette, B.‐K. Park, C. Peubey, P. de Rosnay, C. Tavolato, J.‐N. Thépaut, and F. Vitart https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.828

MIMOC: A Global Monthly Isopycnal Upper-Ocean Climatology with Mixed Layers S. Schmidtko, G. C. Johnson, and J. M. Lyman https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20122

The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service Ocean State Report Von Schuckmann et al. https://doi.org/10.1080/1755876X.2016.1273446

Climate and carbon cycle changes from 1850 to 2100 in MPI-ESM simulations for the coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 Giorgetta et al. https://doi.org/10.1002/jame.20038

Lovisa Waldrop Bergman and Céline Heuzé

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Short summary
How to force a model where no suitable observation exists? We here determine using MITgcm the relative influence of the choice of wind, initial hydrography, and sea ice cover on the resulting ocean circulation in Nares Strait, northwest Greenland. The input with the largest effect is the density gradient in the upper layer. We argue that it should be prioritised over high resolution wind for cost-effective simulations of the Arctic straits, crucial for modelling the Arctic freshwater export.