Date

Special Session, Representation of Sea Ice in Models, at the
EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly
Nice, France
6-11 April 2003

For more information see the conference website at:
http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html

Deadline for Receipt of Abstracts: 15 January 2003

A session entitled "Representation of sea ice in models" will take place
at the combined EGS/AGU meeting in Nice, April, 2003. The session
(CR6.02) is within the Cryospheric Sciences section and is jointly
sponsored by Ocean Sciences. Details of the meeting and the session can
be found at:
http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html

Session information:
Sea ice impacts on air-sea interaction processes by modifying the
transport of momentum, heat and freshwater across the air-sea interface.
Growing and melting sea ice directly impacts on oceanic convection and
the thermohaline circulation. Over the last 40 years there has been a
general retreat of the sea ice edge position amounting to approximately
3% per decade in the Northern Hemisphere. More recently, major changes
have been reported during the late 1990s concerning the Arctic Ocean,
its atmospheric circulation and its seasonal to interannual sea ice
cover. Accompanying these changes is a retreat of the Arctic cold
halocline layer, possibly affecting sea ice cover via changes in the
vertical oceanic heat flux. In the Antarctic, the impact of the surface
freshwater flux on sea ice cover remains an unresolved problem. Many
climate models employ highly idealized representations of sea ice and
its coupling with the ocean and atmosphere. What are the uncertainties
in projected climate change arising from highly idealized sea ice
physics?

This session solicits papers on developments in sea ice modelling, on
studies coupling sea ice models to atmospheric and oceanic models and
the the impact of sea ice in climate models. We welcome contributions
spanning process modelling studies to general circulation modelling
studies.

For more information see the conference website at:
http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html