The neXtSIM-F sea ice forecasting platform

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.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,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. 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.neXtSIM-F is scheduled to become part of the CMEMS Arctic Marine Forecast Center in June 2020.