--- MITgcm_contrib/articles/ceaice/ceaice_intro.tex 2008/03/04 20:31:31 1.3 +++ MITgcm_contrib/articles/ceaice/ceaice_intro.tex 2008/06/28 15:44:39 1.6 @@ -1,25 +1,29 @@ \section{Introduction} \label{sec:intro} -In the past five years, oceanographic state estimation has matured to the +In recent years, oceanographic state estimation has matured to the extent that estimates of the evolving circulation of the ocean constrained by in-situ and remotely sensed global observations are now routinely available and being applied to myriad scientific problems \citep{wun07}. Ocean state -estimation is the process of fitting an ocean general circulation model (GCM) -to a multitude of observations. As formulated by the consortium Estimating +estimation is the process of fitting an ocean General Circulation Model (GCM) +to a multitude of observations. As formulated by the consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), an automatic differentiation tool is used to calculate the so-called adjoint code of a GCM. The method of Lagrange multipliers is then used to render the problem one of unconstrained least-squares minimization. Although much has been achieved, the existing -ECCO estimates lack intercative sea ice. This limits the ability of ECCO to +ECCO estimates lack interactive sea ice. This limits the ability to utilize satellite data constraints over sea-ice covered regions. This also -limits the usefulness of the ECCO ocean state estimates for describing and -studying polar-subpolar interactions. +limits the usefulness of the derived ocean state estimates for describing and +studying polar-subpolar interactions. This paper is a first step towards +adding sea-ice capability to the ECCO estimates. That is, we describe a +dynamic and thermodynamic sea ice model that has been coupled to the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model +\citep[MITgcm][]{mar97a} and that has been modified to permit efficient and +accurate automatic differentiation. The availability of an adjoint model as a powerful research tool complementary to an ocean model was a major design requirement early -on in the development of the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) -[Marshall et al. 1997a, Marotzke et al. 1999, Adcroft et al. 2002]. It +on in the development of the MITgcm \citep{marotzke99}. It was recognized that the adjoint model permitted computing the gradients of various scalar-valued model diagnostics, norms or, generally, objective functions with respect to external or independent @@ -44,25 +48,27 @@ Traditionally, probably for historical reasons and the ease of treating the Coriolis term, most standard sea-ice models are discretized on Arakawa-B-grids \citep[e.g.,][]{hibler79, harder99, - kreyscher00, zhang98, hunke97}\ml{, although there are sea ice only - models diretized on a C-grid \citep[e.g.,][]{tremblay97, - lemieux09}}. From the perspective of coupling a sea ice-model to a -C-grid ocean model, the exchange of fluxes of heat and fresh-water -pose no difficulty for a B-grid sea-ice model -\citep[e.g.,][]{timmermann02a}. However, surface stress is defined at -velocities points and thus needs to be interpolated between a B-grid -sea-ice model and a C-grid ocean model. Smoothing implicitly -associated with this interpolation may mask grid scale noise and may -contribute to stabilizing the solution. On the other hand, by -smoothing the stress signals are damped which could lead to reduced -variability of the system. By choosing a C-grid for the sea-ice model, -we circumvent this difficulty altogether and render the stress -coupling as consistent as the buoyancy coupling. + kreyscher00, zhang98, hunke97}, although there are sea ice models +diretized on a C-grid \citep[e.g.,][]{ip91, tremblay97, + lemieux09}. % +\ml{[there is also MI-IM, but I only found this as a reference: + \url{http://retro.met.no/english/r_and_d_activities/method/num_mod/MI-IM-Documentation.pdf}]} +From the perspective of coupling a sea ice-model to a C-grid ocean +model, the exchange of fluxes of heat and fresh-water pose no +difficulty for a B-grid sea-ice model \citep[e.g.,][]{timmermann02a}. +However, surface stress is defined at velocities points and thus needs +to be interpolated between a B-grid sea-ice model and a C-grid ocean +model. Smoothing implicitly associated with this interpolation may +mask grid scale noise and may contribute to stabilizing the solution. +On the other hand, by smoothing the stress signals are damped which +could lead to reduced variability of the system. By choosing a C-grid +for the sea-ice model, we circumvent this difficulty altogether and +render the stress coupling as consistent as the buoyancy coupling. A further advantage of the C-grid formulation is apparent in narrow straits. In the limit of only one grid cell between coasts there is no flux allowed for a B-grid (with no-slip lateral boundary counditions), -and models have used topographies artificially widened straits to +and models have used topographies with artificially widened straits to avoid this problem \citep{holloway07}. The C-grid formulation on the other hand allows a flux of sea-ice through narrow passages if free-slip along the boundaries is allowed. We demonstrate this effect @@ -71,11 +77,12 @@ Talk about problems that make the sea-ice-ocean code very sensitive and changes in the code that reduce these sensitivities. -This paper describes the MITgcm sea ice -model; it presents example Arctic and Antarctic results from a realistic, -eddy-permitting, global ocean and sea-ice configuration; it compares B-grid -and C-grid dynamic solvers in a regional Arctic configuration; and it presents -example results from coupled ocean and sea-ice adjoint-model integrations. +This paper describes the MITgcm sea ice model; it presents example +Arctic and Antarctic results from a realistic, eddy-permitting, global +ocean and sea-ice configuration; it compares B-grid and C-grid dynamic +solvers and investigates further aspects of sea ice modeling in a +regional Arctic configuration; and it presents example results from +coupled ocean and sea-ice adjoint-model integrations. %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: latex