Publications

Arctic sea ice modeling with the material-point method

Peterson, Kara J.; Bochev, Pavel B.

Arctic sea ice plays an important role in global climate by reflecting solar radiation and insulating the ocean from the atmosphere. Due to feedback effects, the Arctic sea ice cover is changing rapidly. To accurately model this change, high-resolution calculations must incorporate: (1) annual cycle of growth and melt due to radiative forcing; (2) mechanical deformation due to surface winds, ocean currents and Coriolis forces; and (3) localized effects of leads and ridges. We have demonstrated a new mathematical algorithm for solving the sea ice governing equations using the material-point method with an elastic-decohesive constitutive model. An initial comparison with the LANL CICE code indicates that the ice edge is sharper using Materials-Point Method (MPM), but that many of the overall features are similar.