Parameterization of an Iceberg Drift Model in the Barents Sea

Abstract

The problem of parameter estimation is examined for an iceberg drift model of the Barents Sea. The model is forced by atmospheric reanalysis data from ECMWF and ocean and sea ice variables from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The model is compared with four observed iceberg trajectories from April to July 1990. The first part of the study focuses on the forces that have the strongest impact on the iceberg trajectories, namely, the oceanic, atmospheric, and Coriolis forces. The oceanic and atmospheric form drag coefficients are optimized for three different iceberg geometries. As the iceberg mass increases, the optimal form drag coefficients increase linearly. A simple balance between the drag forces and the Coriolis force explains this behavior. The ratio between the oceanic and atmospheric form drag coefficients is similar in all experiments, although there are large uncertainties on the iceberg geometries. Two iceberg trajectory simulations have precisions better than 20 km during two months of drift. The trajectory error for the two other simulations is less than 25 km during the first month of drift but increases rapidly to over 70 km afterward. The second part of the study focuses on the sea ice parameterization. The sea ice conditions east of Svalbard in winter 1990 were too mild to exhibit any sensitivity to the sea ice parameters.