Numerical Simulations of the Ocean and Sea Ice in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with NEMO

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is a complicated network of narrow straits and shallow basin that connects the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean. It is the one of the major pathways delivering cold fresh Arctic Ocean... [ view full abstract ]

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is a complicated network of narrow straits and shallow basin that connects the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean. It is the one of the major pathways delivering cold fresh Arctic Ocean water to the warm salty Atlantic Ocean, potentially influencing deep convection in Labrador Sea and the large scale meridional circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. The CAA includes the famous Northwest Passage, which may become important for shipping in the near future. Here we show our research based on a numerical modelling approach to examine sea ice processes and ocean circulation in this region.

We use the ANHA (Arctic and North Hemisphere Atlantic) configuration of the coupled ocean-sea ice model, NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling numerical framework) to simulate the CAA sea ice and ocean conditions over the period of 2002-2013. The simulations have been conducted on WestGrid machines over the past year. We focus our presentation on two aspects, sea ice thickness and ocean circulation in the CAA. For the sea ice, we validate the simulated ice thickness with observations at available sites and estimate the thermal and dynamic contributions to ice growth. For the ocean, we validate the volume transport through Lancaster Sound with long-term mooring measurements and we identify the main pathways of volume, heat and freshwater through CAA.