A coastal sea ice model with discrete parcel method

A coastal seasonal sea ice dynamic model with a pure Lagrangian discrete parcel method (DPM) is developed in this study. This model is compared to the most widely used sea ice model implemented with an implicit finite difference method (FDM) (Hibler 1979), and a recently developed semi-Lagrangian particle-in-cell (PIC) model (Flato 1993). The comparisons between these methods show that the DPM gives more accurate result than the others. The advantages of the DPM are that it has negligible numerical diffusion, maintains mass conservation, and can provide information on ice motion with better accuracy. The ice edge prediction is more accurate than the finite difference method.; The ice dynamic model is coupled with a hydrodynamic model with tidal current, and applied to the Bohai Sea, where short term variations of the ice motion is of interest. The simulated result compared well with satellite data. The simulated ice velocity vector field is compared with the field data obtained from the satellite images using the Maximum Cross-Correlation (MCC) technique.; In addition to the numerical model, an analysis on the effects of various forcing terms on the ice motion for idealized conditions is also presented.