How well do the regional atmospheric and oceanic models describe the Antarctic sea ice albedo?

Verro, Kristiina; Äijälä, Cecilia; Pirazzini, Roberta; Dadic, Ruzica; Maure, Damien; van de Berg, Willem Jan; Traversa, Giacomo; van Dalum, Christiaan T.; Uotila, Petteri; Fettweis, Xavier; Di Mauro, Biagio; Johansson, Milla

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4409-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4409-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4409-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

Research article

|

09 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 09 Oct 2025

How well do the regional atmospheric and oceanic models describe the Antarctic sea ice albedo?

Kristiina Verro, Cecilia Äijälä, Roberta Pirazzini, Ruzica Dadic, Damien Maure, Willem Jan van de Berg, Giacomo Traversa, Christiaan T. van Dalum, Petteri Uotila, Xavier Fettweis, Biagio Di Mauro, and Milla Johansson

Data sets

Accompanying data to Verro et al. paper "How well do the regional atmospheric and oceanic models describe the Antarctic sea ice albedo?" Kristiina Verro https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14637955

Continuous meteorological surface measurement during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXII/2 (ISPOL) G. König-Langlo https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.326641

Figure 5. Mean snow thickness of different sites on sea ice during POLARSTERN cruise ANT-XXII/2 (ISPOL) during the drift M. Nicolaus et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.759617

Snow on Antarctic Sea Ice -- McMurdo Sound 2022 R. Dadic et al. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.633

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Snow on Antarctic Sea Ice -- McMurdo Sound 2022 -- UAV Retrievals J. Martin et al. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.634

Short summary

Accurately representing Antarctic sea ice is essential for reliable climate and ocean model predictions. We evaluated how different models simulate the sea ice's sunlight reflectivity (called albedo) using field and satellite data. Models with simple albedo schemes performed well in limited cases but missed key processes. The advanced scheme in the MetROMS-UHel ocean model provided the most accurate results, including observed day–night albedo changes observed during a field campaign.