The Arctic and Antarctic regions are experiencing rapid and unprecedented changes due to polar and global climate change, clearly caused by anthropogenic activities. 21st century projections show substantial decrease of sea ice in both Arctic and Antarctic, which are expected to impact people in the Arctic and also society beyond polar regions. CRiceS aims to investigate how rapid sea ice decline is interlinked with physical and chemical changes in the polar oceans and atmosphere, and to fully understand the causes and consequences of this polar transition.
CRiceS will quantify the controlling chemical, biogeochemical, and physical interactions within the coupled ocean-ice/snow-atmosphere system through comprehensive analysis of new and emerging in-situ and satellite observations, and will improve numerical descriptions of sea ice dynamics/energy exchange, aerosols, clouds and radiation, biogeochemical exchanges. This improved understanding allows for improved quantification of feedback mechanisms and teleconnections within the Earth system.
48 months from 01/09/2021 to 30/08/2025
https://www.crices-h2020.eu/
General objectives
The overarching CRiceS objective is to deliver improved understanding of the physical, chemical, and biogeochemical interactions within the OIA system, new knowledge of polar and global climate, and enhanced ability of society to respond to climate change.
CMCC role
CMCC will contribute to full understand how rapid sea ice decline is interlinked with physical and chemical changes in the polar oceans. Making use of the CMCC Earth System Models (ESMs) CMCC will work on improving the numerical representations of sea ice dynamics/energy exchange, biogeochemical cycles and fully coupled system behavior. This improved understanding allows for assessment of the role of ocean-ice/snow-atmosphere interactions in polar and global climate and delivers improved quantification of feedback mechanisms and teleconnections within the Earth system. CMCC co-leads WP3, coordinates research activities in two tasks (Task 3.5, Task 4.3).
Activities
CMCC will contribute to quantify current model shortcomings in representing ocean-ice/snow-atmosphere processes and recommend improved/new model parameterizations towards better understanding of the fully coupled climate system (WP1), to enhance the descriptions of sea ice/snow processes and the representation of biogeochemical processes in sea-ice covered regions in global numerical models (WP2), to improve knowledge of connections between polar regions and lower latitudes using advanced representations of sea-ice and snow properties (and their close interfaces with the atmosphere and ocean) and advanced polar biogeochemical processes (WP3), to finally quantify the impact of new OIA process descriptions on future projections using (WP4).
Expected results
Assessment of the current state of model performance in the polar regions based on CMIP6 and other existing model runs; improved model performance in reproducing sea ice characteristics and biogeochemical processes in the polar regions; assessment of the impact of advanced model descriptions on the representation of the present and future polar/global Earth system interactions. For these purposes, CMCC will analyze existing model runs and will produce new simulations with an update coupled model.
Partners
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS (CNRS)
- CICERO SENTER KLIMAFORSKNING STIFTELSE (CICERO)
- STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET (SU)
- NORSK POLARINSTITUTT (NPI)
- CMCC
- SUOMEN YMPARISTOKESKUS (SYKE)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN (UCT)
- HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO (UHEL)
- UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN (UiB)
- UNIVERSITAET BREMEN (UBREMEN)
- AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS (CSIC)
- UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON (UCL)
- ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR POLAR- UND MEERESFORSCHUNG (AWI)
- UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (UKRI-BAS)
- ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
- RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN (RUG)
- UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA (UVIC)
- University of Calgary (UNICALGARY)
- INSTITUTE OF COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS OF THE SIBERIAN BRANCH OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (ICM&MG SD RAS)