Validation of parameterizations for the surface turbulent fluxes over sea ice with CHINARE 2010 and SHEBA data

Abstract

This study examines the modelled surface turbulent fluxes over sea ice from the bulk algorithms of the Beijing Climate Centre Climate System Model (BCC_CSM), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model and the Community Earth System Model (CESM) with data from the fourth Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE 2010) and the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment. Of all the model algorithms, wind stresses are replicated well and have small annual biases (-0.6% in BCC_CSM, 0.2% in CESM and 17% in ECMWF) with observations, annual sensible heat fluxes are consistently underestimated by 83-141%, and annual latent heat fluxes are generally overestimated by 49-73%. Five sets of stability functions for stable stratification are evaluated based on theoretical and observational analyses, and the superior stability functions are employed in a new bulk algorithm proposal, which also features varying roughness lengths. Compared to BCC_CSM, the new algorithm can estimate the friction velocity with significantly reduced bias, 84% smaller in winter and 56% smaller in summer, respectively. For the sensible heat flux, the bias of the new algorithm is 30% smaller in winter and 19% smaller in summer than that of BCC_CSM. Finally, the bias of modelled latent heat fluxes is 27% smaller in summer.

Keywords: Iceatmosphere coupling; turbulent flux parameterization; MoninObukhov similarity theory; SHEBA; stable boundary layer

(Published: 23 September 2013)

Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32, 20818, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.20818