The neXtSIM-F sea ice forecasting platform
<p>The neXtSIM-F forecast system consists of a stand-alone sea ice model, neXtSIM, forced by the TOPAZ ocean forecast and the ECMWF atmospheric forecast, combined with daily data assimilation.</p><p>neXtSIM is a novel sea ice model which is able to reproduce sea ice deformation properties and statistics, such as spatial localisation and temporal intermittency,<br>even at relatively low resolutions. For our forecast we run it at 10km resolution, over a pan-Arctic domain. We assimilate OSISAF SSMI and AMSR2 sea ice concentration products and the SMOS sea ice thickness product by modifying the initial conditions daily and adding a compensating heat flux to prevent removed ice growing back too quickly.&#160;</p><p>We present an evaluation of the platform over the period from November 2018 to present, looking at sea ice drift and concentration and extent, and thin ice thickness.</p><p>neXtSIM-F is scheduled to become part of the CMEMS Arctic Marine Forecast Center in June 2020.</p>