Sea Ice Historical Forecast Project (Ice-HFP)

The key component of this project is the comparison of an experiment fully initialized to observed sea ice concentration with another experiment where sea ice initialization is climatological in nature. To properly assess the influence of sea ice initialization on summer and winter season predictions, as well as the autumn sea ice minimum, start dates for historical forecasts around a central analysis of May 1st, Aug. 1st, and Nov. 1st for the years 1996 and 2007 should be provided. The model runs through a 12-month integration. Ten ensemble members per start date were achieved. The model monthly mean outputs are as follows: 2m temperature, sea surface temperature, 2m specific humidity, (10m) velocity, mean sea level pressure, surface pressure, total precipitation, downward surface solar radiation, net surface longwave radiation, latent and sensible heat flux, and geopotential height, temperature and velocity at 850, 500, 200 and 100 hPa. Sea surface temperature and salinity, sea level height, ocean 3D temperature, 3D salinity, 3D velocity, surface heat flux, freshwater flux, momentum fluxes, ice concentration, ice thickness, snow thickness, ice velocity, ice top and bottom boundary heat, freshwater and momentum fluxes, ice top and bottom boundary temperature, snow cover, snow depth, and soil wetness. The model daily mean outputs are as follows: maximum/minimum 2m temperature, geopotential height and temperature at 850, 500, 200 and 100hPa, ice concentration, and ice thickness. More information about the datasets is available in the README file (README_IceHFP_Arctic_Ocean_29fev2012.txt).