Impact of a new sea ice thermodynamic formulation in the CESM2 sea ice component

The changes to the sea ice model and their influence on coupled model simulations are described here. Two simulations were performed to assess the changes in the vertical thermodynamics formulation with prognostic salinity compared to a constant salinity profile.

Inclusion of the mushy layer thermodynamics of Turner et al. (2013, ) in a fully coupled Earth system model produces thicker and more extensive sea ice in the Arctic, with relatively unchanged sea ice in the Antarctic compared to simulations using a constant salinity profile. While this is consistent with the findings of uncoupled ice-ocean model studies, the role of the frazil and congelation growth is more important in fully coupled simulations.