Articles | Volume 20, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3299-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3299-2026
Research article
 | 
03 Jun 2026
Research article |  | 03 Jun 2026

Sea ice data assimilation in ORAS6

Philip Browne, Eric de Boisseson, Sarah Keeley, Charles Pelletier, and Hao Zuo

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Cited articles

Abraham, C., Steiner, N., Monahan, A., and Michel, C.: Effects of subgrid-scale snow thickness variability on radiative transfer in sea ice, J. Geophys. Res,-Oceans, 120, 5597–5614, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JC010741, 2015. a
Balan-Sarojini, B., Tietsche, S., Mayer, M., Balmaseda, M., Zuo, H., de Rosnay, P., Stockdale, T., and Vitart, F.: Year-round impact of winter sea ice thickness observations on seasonal forecasts, The Cryosphere, 15, 325–344, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-325-2021, 2021. a, b
Bitz, C. M., Holland, M. M., Weaver, A. J., and Eby, M.: Simulating the ice‐thickness distribution in a coupled climate model, J. Geophys. Res-Oceans, 106, 2441–2463, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999jc000113, 2001. a
Blockley, E. W. and Peterson, K. A.: Improving Met Office seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice using assimilation of CryoSat-2 thickness, The Cryosphere, 12, 3419–3438, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3419-2018, 2018. a
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Short summary
An initial estimate of sea ice conditions are required to start modern weather forecasting models. To get these we have to combine observations, typically from satellites, with previous estimates of the sea ice conditions. This paper talks about how we do this in the latest version of the model, where the sea ice state has to be specified for ice of different thicknesses. We describe the method that is used when we produce an estimate for every hour for the past 50 years.
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