Simulating Arctic sea-ice salinity

We study and compare the simulated salinity profiles against ice-core data to better understand the salinity evolution in Arctic sea ice. The simulations were calculated using the 1D thermodynamic sea-ice model SAMSIM which was developed by the authors and includes parametrized brine fluxes. These brine fluxes determine the salinity evolution via salt advection. SAMSIM is a valuable tool to study and interpret the sea-ice salinity evolution, because the ice core measurements themselves only provide limited insight. We force SAMSIM with reanalysis data throughout the Arctic and show that the simulated salinity profiles agree well with available core data. Using these simulations we study the transformation of first-year to multi-year ice, determine when which desalination processes occur, and link the evolution of the sea-ice bulk salinity to ice thickness. We also determine the sources of inter-annual variability in the sea-ice salinity profile. Finally, we show that prescribing a salinity profile instead of parametrizing salinity only leads to small changes in thickness and stored energy. Modeled mean salinity profiles of first-year and multi-year Arctic sea-ice, compared to multi-year ice core data.