A Spatial Evaluation of Arctic Sea Ice and Regional Limitations in CMIP6 Historical Simulations
Author
Watts, Matthew
Maslowski, Wiewslaw
Lee, Younjoo J.
Kinney, Jaclyn Clement
Osinski, Robert
Date
2021-08Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The Arctic sea ice response to a warming climate is assessed in a subset of models participating in phase 6 of
the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), using several metrics in comparison with satellite observations and
results from the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System and the Regional Arctic System Model. Our study
examines the historical representation of sea ice extent, volume, and thickness using spatial analysis metrics, such as the
integrated ice edge error, Brier score, and spatial probability score. We find that the CMIP6 multimodel mean captures the
mean annual cycle and 1979–2014 sea ice trends remarkably well. However, individual models experience a wide range of
uncertainty in the spatial distribution of sea ice when compared against satellite measurements and reanalysis data. Our
metrics expose common and individual regional model biases, which sea ice temporal analyses alone do not capture. We
identify large ice edge and ice thickness errors in Arctic subregions, implying possible model specific limitations in or lack of
representation of some key physical processes. We postulate that many of them could be related to the oceanic forcing,
especially in the marginal and shelf seas, where seasonal sea ice changes are not adequately simulated. We therefore
conclude that an individual model’s ability to represent the observed/reanalysis spatial distribution still remains a challenge.
We propose the spatial analysis metrics as useful tools to diagnose model limitations, narrow down possible processes
affecting them, and guide future model improvements critical to the representation and projections of Arctic
climate change.
Description
17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0491.1
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United StatesCollections
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