The Role of Melt Ponds in Ice-Albedo Feedback

资金提供了一个模拟研究的重点是控制海冰融化池演变的过程。 总的目标是了解通过横向和底部融化产生融化池生长的物理过程，并评估池的反馈机制的潜在作用。 要测试的主要假设是，融化池的增长涉及到一个反馈过程，即增加池塘的深度和池塘的大小导致减少池塘的CO2和更大的太阳能吸收的ponder.The建议的方法是模拟一个理想化的融化池使用耦合池/冰模型的基础上大涡模拟（LES）和三维冰模型。 预测的熔池特性，如侧底熔体和垂直热通量的比例，将被制成表格，并用于构建一个简化的熔池模型的基础上，散装热力学能量预算。 最终，简化的池塘模式将与水文海冰融水模式相结合，作为夏季海冰融化的参数化模式，我们目前无法模拟夏季海冰融化池塘的演变，这是气候模式的一个重大缺陷。 预计这项研究的结果将迅速转化为这些气候模型的改进。

Funds are provided for a modeling study focused on processes that control melt pond evolution on sea ice. The general objective is to understand the physical processes that generate melt pond growth through lateral and bottom melting and evaluate the potential role of pond albedo feedback mechanisms. The main hypothesis to be tested is that melt pond growth involves a feedback process whereby increased pond depth and pond size leads to a decrease in pond albedo and greater solar absorption by the pond.The proposed approach is to simulate an idealized melt pond using a coupled pond/ice model based on large-eddy simulation (LES) and a three-dimensional ice model. Predicted melt pond characteristics, such as the ratio of the side to bottom melt and vertical heat flux, will be tabulated and used to construct a simplified melt pond model based on a bulk thermodynamic energy budget. Ultimately, the simplified pond model will be coupled with a hydrological sea ice melt water model for use as a parameterization of summer melting sea ice.Our present inability to model the summer evolution of melt ponds on sea ice constitutes a significant shortcoming of climate models. It is anticipated that the results of this study will be rapidly transitioned into improvements of these climate models.