Effects of Wave-Induced Sea Ice Break-Up and Mixing in a High-Resolution Coupled Ice-Ocean Model

Abstract

Arctic sea ice plays a vital role in modulating the global climate. In the most recent decades, the rapid decline of the Arctic summer sea ice cover has exposed increasing areas of ice-free ocean, with sufficient fetch for waves to develop. This has highlighted the complex and not well-understood nature of wave-ice interactions, requiring modeling effort. Here, we introduce two independent parameterizations in a high-resolution coupled ice-ocean model to investigate the effects of waveinduced sea ice break-up (through albedo change) and mixing on the Arctic sea ice simulation. Our results show that wave-induced sea ice break-up leads to increases in sea ice concentration and thickness in the..