Toward Reanalysis of the Arctic Climate System - Sea Ice and Ocean Reconstruction with Data Assimilation

The major goal of this project was to develop an integrated set of data assimilation procedures for the ice-ocean system that is able to provide gridded data sets that are physically consistent and constrained to the observations of sea ice and ocean parameters. The project uses modern four-dimensional variational (4D-Var, adjoint) data assimilation methods. Sea ice and ocean models with new data assimilation procedures were employed to maximize the integration of model results with observations and thus attempt to provide the arctic research community with complete and accurate data sets for 3 different climate regimes, namely: 1972-1978, 1989-1996, and 1997-2006. The reconstructed monthly mean water temperature, salinity and currents at standard for above mentioned climate regimes are provided in figures and in gridded digital form.