In contrast to Arctic, the response of Antarctic sea ice to a warming climate is elaborate and puzzling. The key scientific questions that still need to be answered are how Antarctic sea ice responds to a range of local climate conditions and in turn what impact these changes might have on the large-scale climate system.
24 months from 27/06/2014 to 26/06/2016
General aims
The overall aims of this project are to model the response of the Antarctic sea ice to regional climate changes and to explore its influence on climate variability, in order to improve understanding of the role of Antarctic sea ice in the complex atmosphere/ice/ocean system, from regional to global scale.
Modeling studies will be undertaken with the specific objectives to determine:
- What is driving the changes in Antarctic sea ice – how modifications in wind forcing, air and ocean temperature, ocean heat transport and ice-sheet melting affect sea ice extent and volume, both hemispherically and regionally.
- Where and how dense water masses are formed over the shelf domain, through the net cooling and freshwater fluxes during the seasonal sea ice melting/freezing cycle – the impact of Antarctic sea ice variability on formation of dense water on continental shelf to the deep ocean. To which degree eddy-permitting ocean/sea-ice models represent the exchanges between sea ice, coastal and deep ocean waters and their variability.
- The role of Antarctic sea ice in driving thermohaline circulation.
CMCC Role
Project Coordinator, principal investigator
Expected results
Numerical exercises and comparisons with observed data; reports and scientific articles; organization of project meetings; strengthening of Italian-Norwegian cooperation.
Partners
- Geophysical Institute - University of Bergen