Seasonal forecast skill and potential predictability of Arctic sea ice in two versions of a dynamical forecast system
Date
2021-08-31
Authors
Martin, Joseph Zachary
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Abstract
As the decline in Arctic sea ice extent makes this region more accessible, the need is increasing for effective seasonal sea ice forecasting to facilitate operational planning. Recently, coupled global climate models (CGCMs) have been used to address the need for effective sea ice forecasting on seasonal time scales. This thesis assesses the operational utility of the Canadian Seasonal to Interannual Prediction System (CanSIPS) for seasonal sea ice forecasting. This assessment consists of two separate studies. The first uses hindcasting to analyze the skill of two versions of CanSIPS, as well as an intermediate version, on the pan-Arctic as well as regional scales. This approach allows for an overall assessment of the system's skill in addition to providing insight with regards to the features in each version which improved that skill. This study finds that the use of a new initialization procedure for sea ice concentration and thickness improved forecast skill on the pan-Arctic scale as well as in the Central Arctic, Barents Sea, Laptev Sea, and Sea of Okhotsk. This study also shows that the substitution of one of the constituent models in the system improved forecast skill on the pan-Arctic scale as well as in the GIN, Barents, Kara, East Siberian, Chukchi, Bering, and Beaufort Seas. Overall, the new version of CanSIPS was found to be generally more skillful than previous versions. The second study conducts a potential predictability experiment on CanCM4, the constituent CGCM common to all versions of CanSIPS considered in this study. This study follows the methodology introduced by \cite{Bushuk2018} which allows for a more complete assessment of the dependency of potential predictability on initialization month than previous studies and for comparisons to be made between potential predictability and operational skill. This analysis is again done on both the pan-Arctic and regional scale. The findings of this experiment show that CanCM4 has relatively low potential predictability relative to other models and explains results previously presented in a multi-model study by \cite{Day2016}. Further, the characteristics of CanCM4's potential predictability share similarities with other models including greater predictability at longer lead times for winter target months than summer target months, greater predictability in the Atlantic sector than the Pacific sector, and the presence of the spring predictability barrier on the pan-Arctic scale as well as in several regions. The comparison of operational skill to potential predictability provides a general overview of the ``skill gap" which may be closed with improvements in initialization procedures and model physics. This comparison does, however, come with some caveats due to differences in the statistical characteristics of the perfect model and the climate system it represents. Together, the operational skill assessment of different versions of CanSIPS and the potential predictability experiment conducted on one of its constituent models, CanCM4, demonstrate that while room for improvement exists, the recent development of this forecast system has clearly increased its operational utility as a seasonal sea ice forecasting tool.
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Keywords
Sea Ice, Seasonal Forecasting, Potential Predictability, Perfect Model, Climate Change, CanSIPS