scholarly journals Extended Range Arctic Sea Ice Forecast with Convolutional Long-Short Term Memory Networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Laurens Bogaardt ◽  
Jisk Attema ◽  
Wilco Hazeleger
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Long Short Term Memory

<p>Operational Arctic sea ice forecasts are of crucial importance to commercial and scientific activities in the Arctic region. Currently, numerical climate models, including General Circulation Models (GCMs) and regional climate models, are widely used to generate the Arctic sea ice predictions at weather time-scales. However, these numerical climate models require near real-time input of weather conditions to assure the quality of the predictions and these are hard to obtain and the simulations are computationally expensive. In this study, we propose a deep learning approach to forecasts of sea ice in the Barents sea at weather time scales. To work with such spatial-temporal sequence problems, Convolutional Long Short Term Memory Networks (ConvLSTM) are useful.  ConvLSTM are LSTM (Long-Short Term Memory) networks with convolutional cells embedded in the LSTM cells. This approach is unsupervised learning and it can make use of enormous amounts of historical records of weather and climate. With input fields from atmospheric (ERA-Interim) and oceanic (ORAS4) reanalysis data sets, we demonstrate that the ConvLSTM is able to learn the variability of the Arctic sea ice within historical records and effectively predict regional sea ice concentration patterns at weekly to monthly time scales. Based on the known sources of predictability, sensitivity tests with different climate fields were also performed. The influences of different predictors on the quality of predictions are evaluated. This method outperforms predictions with climatology and persistence and is promising to act as a fast and cost-efficient operational sea ice forecast system in the future.</p>

scholarly journals Extended Range Arctic Sea Ice Forecast with Convolutional Long-Short Term Memory Networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Laurens Bogaardt ◽  
Jisk Attema ◽  
Wilco Hazeleger
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Long Short Term Memory

AbstractOperational Arctic sea ice forecasts are of crucial importance to science and to society in the Arctic region. Currently, statistical and numerical climate models are widely used to generate the Arctic sea ice forecasts at weather time-scales. Numerical models require near real-time input of relevant environmental conditions consistent with the model equations and they are computationally expensive. In this study, we propose a deep learning approach, namely Convolutional Long Short Term Memory Networks (ConvLSTM), to forecast sea ice in the Barents Sea at weather to sub-seasonal time scales. This is an unsupervised learning approach. It makes use of historical records and it exploits the covariances between different variables, including spatial and temporal relations. With input fields from reanalysis data, we demonstrate that ConvLSTM is able to learn the variability of the Arctic sea ice and can forecast regional sea ice concentration skillfully at weekly to monthly time scales. It preserves the physical consistency between predictors and predictands, and generally outperforms forecasts with climatology, persistence and a statistical model. Based on the known sources of predictability, sensitivity tests with different climate fields as input for learning were performed. The impact of different predictors on the quality of the forecasts are evaluated and we demonstrate that the surface energy budget components have a large impact on the predictability of sea ice at weather time scales. This method is promising to enhance operational Arctic sea ice forecasting in the near future.

scholarly journals Arctic Energy Budget in Relation to Sea Ice Variability on Monthly-to-Annual Time Scales

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (16) ◽  
pp. 6335-6350 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Krikken ◽  
W. Hazeleger
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Energy Budget ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Albedo Feedback ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Cloud Ice

Abstract The large decrease in Arctic sea ice in recent years has triggered a strong interest in Arctic sea ice predictions on seasonal-to-decadal time scales. Hence, it is important to understand physical processes that provide enhanced predictability beyond persistence of sea ice anomalies. This study analyzes the natural variability of Arctic sea ice from an energy budget perspective, using 15 climate models from phase 5 of CMIP (CMIP5), and compares these results to reanalysis data. The authors quantify the persistence of sea ice anomalies and the cross correlation with the surface and top-of-atmosphere energy budget components. The Arctic energy balance components primarily indicate the important role of the seasonal ice–albedo feedback, through which sea ice anomalies in the melt season reemerge in the growth season. This is a robust anomaly reemergence mechanism among all 15 climate models. The role of the ocean lies mainly in storing heat content anomalies in spring and releasing them in autumn. Ocean heat flux variations play only a minor role. Confirming a previous (observational) study, the authors demonstrate that there is no direct atmospheric response of clouds to spring sea ice anomalies, but a delayed response is evident in autumn. Hence, there is no cloud–ice feedback in late spring and summer, but there is a cloud–ice feedback in autumn, which strengthens the ice–albedo feedback. Anomalies in insolation are positively correlated with sea ice variability. This is primarily a result of reduced multiple reflection of insolation due to an albedo decrease. This effect counteracts the ice-albedo effect up to 50%. ERA-Interim and Ocean Reanalysis System 4 (ORAS4) confirm the main findings from the climate models.

Memory of Arctic sea ice in model simulations, observations, and reanalyses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Gieße ◽  
Dirk Notz ◽  
Johanna Baehr
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Arctic Sea

<p>The strong decline of Arctic sea ice in recent years has raised growing interest in seasonal-to-interannual predictions of Arctic sea ice. Previous studies have revealed a large predictability gap between potential and operational forecast skill of Arctic sea ice, which could indicate a strong potential for improvement of operational sea ice predictions or hint at a systematic overestimation of sea ice memory in current climate models.</p><p>Here, we assess and compare memory of Arctic sea ice in terms of lagged correlations of sea ice area anomalies on seasonal to interannual time scales in a large model ensemble (MPI Grand Ensemble) as well as several reanalysis and observational products. While the different datasets show good agreement for short-term memory on time scales of a few months on which persistence is the dominant source of memory, we find substantial differences between model and observational memory behaviour on longer time scales. In particular, we find that memory from the summer sea ice minimum into the following year is significantly overestimated in the model, as lagged correlation values in all observational datasets are outside the range of model variability. Reanalysis data show correlation values that lie in between observational and model mean values, underpinning the hybrid nature of reanalyses combining observations and model behaviour. Extending the analysis of sea ice memory to a regional scale provides further information on the spatial origin of specific memory features in the different datasets and helps in understanding differences between model and real-world behaviour on a physical process level.</p>

scholarly journals Observation-based selection of climate models projects Arctic ice-free summers around 2035

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Docquier ◽  
Torben Koenigk
Keyword(s):  
Model Selection ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Area And Volume

AbstractArctic sea ice has been retreating at an accelerating pace over the past decades. Model projections show that the Arctic Ocean could be almost ice free in summer by the middle of this century. However, the uncertainties related to these projections are relatively large. Here we use 33 global climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) and select models that best capture the observed Arctic sea-ice area and volume and northward ocean heat transport to refine model projections of Arctic sea ice. This model selection leads to lower Arctic sea-ice area and volume relative to the multi-model mean without model selection and summer ice-free conditions could occur as early as around 2035. These results highlight a potential underestimation of future Arctic sea-ice loss when including all CMIP6 models.

scholarly journals Modeled Arctic sea ice evolution through 2300 in CMIP5 extended RCPs

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1383-1406 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Hezel ◽  
T. Fichefet ◽  
F. Massonnet
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Abstract. Almost all global climate models and Earth system models that participated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) show strong declines in Arctic sea ice extent and volume under the highest forcing scenario of the Radiative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) through 2100, including a transition from perennial to seasonal ice cover. Extended RCP simulations through 2300 were completed for a~subset of models, and here we examine the time evolution of Arctic sea ice in these simulations. In RCP2.6, the summer Arctic sea ice extent increases compared to its minimum following the peak radiative forcing in 2044 in all 9 models. RCP4.5 demonstrates continued summer Arctic sea ice decline due to continued warming on longer time scales. These two scenarios imply that summer sea ice extent could begin to recover if and when radiative forcing from greenhouse gas concentrations were to decrease. In RCP8.5 the Arctic Ocean reaches annually ice-free conditions in 7 of 9 models. The ensemble of simulations completed under the extended RCPs provide insight into the global temperature increase at which sea ice disappears in the Arctic and reversibility of declines in seasonal sea ice extent.

scholarly journals How Climate Model Complexity Influences Sea Ice Stability

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 3998-4014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till J. W. Wagner ◽  
Ian Eisenman
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Model Complexity ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Low Order

Abstract Record lows in Arctic sea ice extent have been making frequent headlines in recent years. The change in albedo when sea ice is replaced by open water introduces a nonlinearity that has sparked an ongoing debate about the stability of the Arctic sea ice cover and the possibility of Arctic “tipping points.” Previous studies identified instabilities for a shrinking ice cover in two types of idealized climate models: (i) annual-mean latitudinally varying diffusive energy balance models (EBMs) and (ii) seasonally varying single-column models (SCMs). The instabilities in these low-order models stand in contrast with results from comprehensive global climate models (GCMs), which typically do not simulate any such instability. To help bridge the gap between low-order models and GCMs, an idealized model is developed that includes both latitudinal and seasonal variations. The model reduces to a standard EBM or SCM as limiting cases in the parameter space, thus reconciling the two previous lines of research. It is found that the stability of the ice cover vastly increases with the inclusion of spatial communication via meridional heat transport or a seasonal cycle in solar forcing, being most stable when both are included. If the associated parameters are set to values that correspond to the current climate, the ice retreat is reversible and there is no instability when the climate is warmed. The two parameters have to be reduced by at least a factor of 3 for instability to occur. This implies that the sea ice cover may be substantially more stable than has been suggested in previous idealized modeling studies.

scholarly journals Can we reconstruct Arctic sea ice back to 1900 with a hybrid approach?

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 955-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Brönnimann ◽  
T. Lehmann ◽  
T. Griesser ◽  
T. Ewen ◽  
A. N. Grant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Coupled Processes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Statistical Reconstruction ◽  
Historical Climatology ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Future

Abstract. The variability and trend of Arctic sea ice since the mid 1970s is well documented and linked to rising temperatures. However, much less is known for the first half of the 20th century, when the Arctic also underwent a period of strong warming. For studying this period in atmospheric models, gridded sea ice data are needed as boundary conditions. Current data sets (e.g., HadISST) provide a historical climatology, but may not be suitable when interannual-to-decadal variability is important, as they are interpolated and relaxed towards a (historical) climatology to fill in gaps, particularly in winter. Regional historical sea ice information exhibits considerable variability on interannnual-to-decadal scales, but is only available for summer and not in gridded form. Combining the advantages of both types of information could be used to constrain model simulations in a more realistic way. Here we discuss the feasibility of reconstructing year-round gridded Arctic sea ice from 1900 to 1953 from historical information and a coupled climate model. We decompose sea ice variability into centennial (due to climate forcings), decadal (coupled processes in the ocean-sea ice system) and interannual time scales (atmospheric circulation). The three time scales are represented by a historical climatology from HadISST (centennial), a closest analogue approach using the coupled control run of the CCSM-3.0 model (decadal), and a statistical reconstruction based on high-pass filtered data (interannual variability), respectively. Results show that differences in the model climatology, the length of the control run, and inconsistent historical data strongly limit the quality of the product. However, with more realistic and longer simulations becoming available in the future as well as with improved historical data, useful reconstructions are possible. We suggest that hybrid approaches, using both statistical reconstruction methods and numerical models, may find wider applications in the future.

scholarly journals Refinement of future Arctic sea-ice projections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Docquier ◽  
Torben Koenigk
Keyword(s):  
Model Selection ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Area And Volume

Abstract Arctic sea ice has been retreating at unprecedented pace over the past decades. Model projections show that the Arctic Ocean could be almost ice free in summer by the middle of this century. However, the uncertainties related to these projections are relatively large. Here we use 33 global climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) in order to reduce these uncertainties. We select the models that best capture the observed Arctic sea-ice area and volume and northward ocean heat transport to refine model projections of Arctic sea ice. This model selection leads to smaller Arctic sea-ice area and volume relative to the multi-model mean without model selection and summer ice-free conditions could occur as early as around 2035. These results highlight a potential underestimation of the future Arctic sea-ice loss when including all models.

Assessment of the Regional Arctic System Model Intra-Annual Ensemble Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wieslaw Maslowski ◽  
Younjoo Lee ◽  
Anthony Craig ◽  
Mark Seefeldt ◽  
Robert Osinski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
System Model ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ensemble Prediction ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arctic Sea

<p>The Regional Arctic System Model (RASM) has been developed and used to investigate the past to present evolution of the Arctic climate system and to address increasing demands for Arctic forecasts beyond synoptic time scales. RASM is a fully coupled ice-ocean-atmosphere-land hydrology model configured over the pan-Arctic domain with horizontal resolution of 50 km or 25 km for the atmosphere and land and 9.3 km or 2.4 km for the ocean and sea ice components. As a regional model, RASM requires boundary conditions along its lateral boundaries and in the upper atmosphere, which for simulations of the past to present are derived from global atmospheric reanalyses, such as the National Center for Environmental Predictions (NCEP) Coupled Forecast System version 2 and Reanalysis (CFSv2/CFSR). This dynamical downscaling approach allows comparison of RASM results with observations, in place and time, to diagnose and reduce model biases. This in turn allows a unique capability not available in global weather prediction and Earth system models to produce realistic and physically consistent initial conditions for prediction without data assimilation.</p><p>More recently, we have developed a new capability for an intra-annual (up to 6 months) ensemble prediction of the Arctic sea ice and climate using RASM forced with the routinely produced (every 6 hours) NCEP CFSv2 global 9-month forecasts. RASM intra-annual ensemble forecasts have been initialized on the 1<sup>st</sup> of each month starting in 2019 with forcing for each ensemble member derived from CSFv2 forecasts, 24-hr apart from the month preceding the initial forecast date.  Several key processes and feedbacks will be discussed with regard to their impact on model physics, the representation of initial state and ensemble prediction skill of Arctic sea ice variability at time scales from synoptic to decadal. The skill of RASM ensemble forecasts will be assessed against available satellite observations with reference to reanalysis as well as hindcast data using several metrics, including the standard deviation, root mean square difference, Taylor diagrams and integrated ice-edge error.</p>

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