Identification

Title

Evolution of summer Arctic sea ice albedo in CCSM4 simulations: Episodic summer snowfall and frozen summers

Abstract

The albedo of Arctic sea ice is calculated from summertime output of twentieth century Community Climate System Model v.4 (CCSM4) simulations. This is compared with an empirical record based on the generalized observations of the summer albedo progression along with melt onset dates determined from remote sensing. Only the contributions to albedo from ice, snow, and ponds are analyzed; fractional ice area is not considered in this assessment. Key factors dictating summer albedo evolution are the timing and extent of ponding and accumulation of snow. The CCSM4 summer sea ice albedo decline was found, on average, to be less pronounced than either the empirical record or the CLARA-SAL satellite record. The modeled ice albedo does not go as low as the empirical record, nor does the low summer albedo last as long. In the model, certain summers were found to retain snow on sea ice, thus inhibiting ice surface melt and the formation or retention of melt ponds. These “frozen” summers were generally not the summers with the largest spring snow accumulation, but were instead summers that received at least trace snowfall in June or July. When these frozen summers are omitted from the comparison, the model and empirical records are in much better agreement. This suggests that the representation of summer Arctic snowfall events and/or their influence on the sea ice conditions are not well represented in CCSM4 integrations, providing a target for future model development work.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d77s7pzq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-01-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact