Use of the U.S. National Ice Center Marginal Ice Zone Product with Sea Ice Data Assimilation in U.S. Navy Modeling Systems
Abstract
Within the U.S. Navy, operational sea ice modeling is performed via the Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) and Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) 3.1. Both ESPC and GOFS 3.1 assimilate observations via the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA) system. Currently the only operational sea ice products assimilated into ESPC and GOFS 3.1 are from passive microwave observations. Passive microwave observations are known to under-represent sea ice concentration near the ice edge and mis-classify melting ice and snow as water in summer melt seasons. The U.S. National Ice Center Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) product is used within NCODA to help correct the identification of ice during the summer melt season. While IMS improved assimilated ice concentration in summer melt months, it does not extend to the ice edge, and thus does not update the modeled ice edge where ice concentration is typically low. The USNIC produces a daily ice edge product called the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) product that defines the ice edge. In this study we update NCODA to ingest and use the MIZ product with the IMS product to improve the assimilated sea ice observations and modeled ice edge.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 06, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1212315
Entities
People
- David Hebert
- Jackie May
- Michael Phelps
- Tamara Townsend
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory