Bg. Hunt et al., IMPACT OF THE GREENHOUSE-EFFECT ON SEA-ICE CHARACTERISTICS AND SNOW ACCUMULATION IN THE POLAR-REGIONS, International journal of climatology, 15(1), 1995, pp. 3-23
An extensive analysis has been made of the simulated sea-ice behaviour
for current and doubled carbon dioxide levels for both polar regions.
The sea-ice variations were computed as a component of the overall pe
rformance of a global climatic model. This model simulated the major c
limatic processes, but used an elementary oceanic representation known
as the Q-flux parameterization. For simplicity, dynamical processes w
ere omitted from the sea-ice formulation. For current conditions the s
ea-ice extent, thickness, seasonal and interannual variability were re
asonably simulated, particularly for the Northern Hemisphere. The majo
r deficiency was the lack of regions with very thick sea-ice, which is
known to be generated in the real world by dynamical interactions. Ve
ry substantial reductions occurred in the sea-ice thickness, and to a
lesser extent in sea-ice area, under greenhouse conditions, with the m
ajor impact being in summer. Water mass accumulation over the great ic
e-sheets agreed moderately well with limited observations for control
conditions. An increase in accumulation rate was simulated for both po
lar regions in the greenhouse experiment. The results indicate that, o
verall, a first-order representation of sea-ice behaviour is obtainabl
e with a thermodynamics-only sea-ice parameterization.