Abstract

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> Severe ice conditions in the Bohai Sea could cause serious harm to maritime traffic, offshore oil exploitation, aquaculture, and other economic activities in the surrounding regions. In addition to providing sea ice forecasts for disaster prevention and risk mitigation, sea ice numerical models could help explain the sea ice variability within the context of climate change in marine ecosystems, such as spotted seals, which are the only ice-dependent animal that breeds in Chinese waters. Here, we developed NEMO-Bohai, an ocean–ice coupled model based on the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) model version 4.0 and Sea Ice Modelling Integrated Initiative (SI<span class="inline-formula"><sup>3</sup>)</span> (NEMO4.0-SI<span class="inline-formula"><sup>3</sup>)</span> for the Bohai Sea. This study will present the scientific design and technical choices of the parameterizations for the NEMO-Bohai model. The model was calibrated and evaluated with in situ and satellite observations of the ocean and sea ice. The model simulations agree with the observations with respect to sea surface height (SSH), temperature (SST), salinity (SSS), currents, and temperature and salinity stratification. The seasonal variation of the sea ice area is well simulated by the model compared to the satellite remote sensing data for the period of 1996–2017. Overall agreement is found for the occurrence dates of the annual maximum sea ice area. The simulated sea ice thickness and volume are in general agreement with the observations with slight overestimations. NEMO-Bohai can simulate seasonal sea ice evolution and long-term interannual variations. Hence, NEMO-Bohai is a valuable tool for long-term ocean and ice simulations and climate change studies.

Highlights

  • The Bohai Sea is the southernmost seasonal frozen sea in the Northern Hemisphere (Yan et al., 2017)

  • Model setup: Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO)-Bohai NEMO-Bohai is localized to the Bohai Sea based on the NEMO ocean engine (Madec et al, 2016)

  • The bottom roughness impacts the dynamics of the tide, ocean circulation and storm surges in the Bohai Sea

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Summary

Introduction

The Bohai Sea is the southernmost seasonal frozen sea in the Northern Hemisphere (Yan et al., 2017). The population of the spotted seal has experienced several drastic declines from 50 ~2300 to ~1000 individuals over the past three decades due to hunting and environmental pollution (Yan et al, 2018; Yang et al, 2017) They den in coastal areas and on offshore drifting ice. When the sea ice melts, they gradually leave Liaodong Bay and embark on a long journey back to the Pacific Ocean. There are only very few studies on developing regional coupled 65 ocean-ice models for the Bohai Sea, and most of them have focused on short-duration simulations, such as one week and one-year case studies. A coupled ocean-ice model could help improve our understanding of sea ice processes in the Bohai Sea, which is crucial for sea ice disaster prevention, spotted seal habitat studies, and regional climate change studies.

Model setup
Global ocean-ice model ORCA025
NEMO-Bohai
Observational data
Sea surface temperature and salinity
Sea ice area
Sea surface salinity
Spatial variation of Bohai sea ice
Findings
Conclusion and perspectives for the modelling platform
Full Text
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