Real-time Data Assimilation of Ice Concentration into a Coupled Ice/Ocean Forecast System

Since the late 1980's, ice forecasting systems developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have been predicting conditions in the Arctic Ocean and several of its marginal seas for use by the U.S. Navy. Each day a 120-hour forecast of ice drift, ice thickness and ice concentration is run operationally at the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). Presently, a high resolution Arctic two-way coupled ice/ocean nowcast/forecast system based on the Community Ice CodE (CICE) and the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) is being tested using the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA) system. Ice concentration data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) is used as initialization for the model's ice concentration field. Results from the coupled system both with and without the use of ice concentration data for initialization will be discussed.