| Seasonal and interannual variations of the sea ice cover represent oneof the most pronounced signals of variability in the world climatesystem.The freezing and melting of sea ice in the marginal seas of theSouthernOcean controls the amount and location of Antarctic Bottom Waterformation which is a major driver in the global thermohalinecirculation.The Louvain-la-Neuve sea ice model has been coupled to the OPA oceangeneral circulation model. In the ORCALIM configuration, the model isrun in a global domain with 2 degrees horizontal resolution.Model runs are forced with a combined dataset consisting of both dailyNCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and various climatologies.The annual cycle of sea ice growth and decay is realistically capturedin both hemispheres, with ice extent, thickness and drift in closeagreement with observations.While hindcast simulations for the past five decades reveal only a verysmall trend, ice volume and the ice-covered area are subject to apronounced interannual variability.The presentation sheds light on typical patterns and timescales of this variability and its effects on the large scale oceancirculation. |
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