SIMULATION ON CLIMATIC VARIATION OF ARCTIC SEA ICE THROUGH AN ICE-OCEAN COUPLED MODEL^*

An ocean model developed by the Institute of Marine Research and the University of Bergen in Norway (BOM) and a state-of-the-art sea ice model developed by NCAR (CSIM4) are coupled, Considering influences of 9 major rivers,forced by the NCEP reanalysis atmospheric fields and the Levitus surface salinity,the Arctic sea ice climatic variation from January 1949 to December.1999 was simulated through the coupled model.The comparison of simulated results and observations shows that:(1)the long-term ice concentration variation tendencies are in consistent with the observations in the divisional ocean regions;(2)simulated ice thickness horizontal distribution is reasonable.Simulated ice thickness has a decreasing tendency in the central Arctic,which agrees with the submarine observations.Simulated annually maximum ice thickness is highly related to observed fast-ice thickness off the Russian coast;and (3)sea ice area/volume fluxes through the Fram Strait are in accord with the satellite-derived data.Generally,the coupled model successfully simulated the Arctic Ocean sea ice climatic variation.