Assimilating CryoSat-2 freeboard to improve Arctic sea ice thickness estimates

Abstract. In this study, a new method to assimilate freeboard (FB) derived from satellite radar altimetry is presented with the goal of improving the initial state of sea ice thickness predictions in the Arctic. In order to quantify the improvement in sea ice thickness gained by assimilating FB, we compare three different model runs: one reference run (refRun), one that assimilates only sea ice concentration (SIC) (sicRun), and one that assimilates both SIC and FB (fbRun). It is shown that estimates for both SIC and FB can be improved by assimilation, but only fbRun improved the FB. The resulting sea ice thickness is evaluated by comparing sea ice draft measurements from the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project (BGEP) and sea ice thickness measurements from 19 ice mass balance (IMB) buoys deployed during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. The sea ice thickness of fbRun compares better than refRun and sicRun to the longer BGEP observations more poorly to the shorter MOSAiC observations. Further, the three model runs are compared to the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) weekly CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness, which is based on the same FB observations as those that were assimilated in this study. It is shown that the FB and sea ice thickness from fbRun are closer to the AWI CryoSat-2 values than the ones from refRun or sicRun. Finally, comparisons of the abovementioned observations and both the fbRun sea ice thickness and the AWI weekly CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness were performed. At the BGEP locations, both fbRun and the AWI CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness perform equally. The total root-mean-square error (RMSE) at the BGEP locations equals 30 cm for both sea ice thickness products. At the MOSAiC locations, fbRun's sea ice thickness performs significantly better, with a total 11 cm lower RMSE.