NeXtSIM, a New Lagrangian Sea Ice Model

Since the late 70s, satellites have provided an unprecedented amount of information on the state, drift, and deformation of the Arctic ice cover over a remarkably large range of spatial and temporal scales. Recently sophisticated multi-scale statistical methods have been applied to this flow of observations leading to a significant improvement in our understanding of sea ice dynamics. Based on this new knowledge a re-evaluation of widely used sea ice models, as well as the development of new sea ice models has begun. In this talk, we will focus on the new large-scale sea ice model neXtSIM. neXtSIM is a continuous and fully Lagrangian sea ice model capable of simulating spatial discontinuities in the sea-ice drift associated with the formation of leads and ridges, down to the scale of the model resolution. Sea ice deformation along those discontinuities are space and time scale dependent following power laws, similarly to what is observed from satellite. We will briefly present the evaluation of a simulation of Arctic sea ice at relatively coarse resolution (10-km) against various satellite datasets, highlighting some interesting features of the dynamical behavior of sea ice in neXtSIM.