The coupled Southern Ocean–Sea ice–Ice shelf Model (SOSIM v1.0): configuration and evaluation

Abstract. Complex interactions among the ocean, sea ice, and ice shelves in the Southern Ocean are critical for global climate, yet accurately simulating these processes remains challenging in climate models, such as those participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, due to their coarse resolution and incomplete physical components. Therefore, the development of high-resolution circumpolar coupled ocean–sea ice–ice shelf models could improve our understanding of the evolution of the Southern Ocean. In this study, we use the c66m version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model, including a sea ice component and an ice shelf component, to configure the coupled Southern Ocean–Sea ice–Ice shelf Model (SOSIM v1.0). Adopting the Refined Topography dataset version 2 for the geometry of seafloor and ice draft, SOSIM features a horizontal resolution of ∼5 km and 70 vertical layers. Forced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5, a long-term integration of SOSIM is run forward from 1979 to 2022, with daily outputs for estimating the oceanic state, sea ice evolution, and basal mass balance of ice shelves. A comprehensive evaluation of the performance of SOSIM has been conducted against multiple observational and reanalysis datasets. Identified biases include an underestimated Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport, an overestimated Antarctic Slope Current, a warm drift in abyssal waters, an exaggerated seasonality of sea ice extent, and an underestimated total ice shelf mass loss. Despite these limitations, SOSIM still captures large-scale hydrographic structures, the annual variability of sea ice, and cross-slope exchanges over shelf seas. Furthermore, SOSIM is set to serve as the dynamical core for the next-generation Southern Ocean Ice Prediction System being developed in China.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geoscientific model development
Published
2026-04-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2985-2026
Primary Topic
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The coupled Southern Ocean–Sea ice–Ice shelf Model (SOSIM v1.0): configuration and evaluation

X Z Li, T Zhang, Qi Shu, Wenjin Sun et al.
Geoscientific model development
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
article

The coupled Southern Ocean–Sea ice–Ice shelf Model (SOSIM v1.0): configuration and evaluation

X Z Li, T Zhang, Qi Shu, Wenjin Sun, Kazuya Kusahara, Κay I. Ohshima, Zhixuan Feng, Hengling Leng, Yongqing Cai, Zhaomin Wang, Andrew McC. Hogg, Craig L. Stevens, Jihai Dong, Kaihe Yamazaki, Tongya Liu, Shiming Xu, Chengyi Yuan, Liangjun Yan, Dujuan Kang, Guitao Shi, Longjiang Mu, Zhaoru Zhang, Yang Liu, Tingfeng Dou, Xi Liang, Jiahao Fan, Kechen Liu, Xiaoyu Pan, Xueyuan Tang, Lu An, Bingrui Li, Kai Yu, Jiabao Zeng, Q T Yang, Xiaoyu Wang, Xiaoming Hu, Chunxia Zhou, Minghu Ding, Meng Zhou, Hailong Liu, Jian Liu, Weizeng Shao, Bo Han, Changming Dong, Chen Cheng, Shaojun Zheng, Haibo Bi, Qi Li, Xia Lin, Yang Wu, Chengyan Liu, Dake Chen, Hu Yang, Yu Zhang, Yue Xia, Yu Liu, Di Qi, Ru Chen, Jiping Liu, Xiao Cheng, Dongxiao Wang, Xianxian Han, Ruibo Lei, Lei Zheng
article en

Abstract

Abstract. Complex interactions among the ocean, sea ice, and ice shelves in the Southern Ocean are critical for global climate, yet accurately simulating these processes remains challenging in climate models, such as those participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, due to their coarse resolution and incomplete physical components. Therefore, the development of high-resolution circumpolar coupled ocean–sea ice–ice shelf models could improve our understanding of the evolution of the Southern Ocean. In this study, we use the c66m version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model, including a sea ice component and an ice shelf component, to configure the coupled Southern Ocean–Sea ice–Ice shelf Model (SOSIM v1.0). Adopting the Refined Topography dataset version 2 for the geometry of seafloor and ice draft, SOSIM features a horizontal resolution of ∼5 km and 70 vertical layers. Forced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5, a long-term integration of SOSIM is run forward from 1979 to 2022, with daily outputs for estimating the oceanic state, sea ice evolution, and basal mass balance of ice shelves. A comprehensive evaluation of the performance of SOSIM has been conducted against multiple observational and reanalysis datasets. Identified biases include an underestimated Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport, an overestimated Antarctic Slope Current, a warm drift in abyssal waters, an exaggerated seasonality of sea ice extent, and an underestimated total ice shelf mass loss. Despite these limitations, SOSIM still captures large-scale hydrographic structures, the annual variability of sea ice, and cross-slope exchanges over shelf seas. Furthermore, SOSIM is set to serve as the dynamical core for the next-generation Southern Ocean Ice Prediction System being developed in China.

Geoscientific model developmentVol. 19(7)
Tongji University (CN), University of Tasmania (AU), Statistics New Zealand (NZ), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JP), Tianjin University of Science and Technology (CN), Polar Research Institute of China (CN), Sun Yat-sen University (CN), Jimei University (CN), Hohai University (CN), National University of Defense Technology (CN), Yunnan University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (CN), Hokkaido University (JP), Ministry of Natural Resources (CN), Beijing Normal University (CN), Zhejiang Ocean University (CN), Wuhan University (CN), Institute of Oceanology (CN), Education New Zealand (NZ), Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (CN), Second Institute of Oceanography (CN), Ministry of Education (ME), First Institute of Oceanography (CN), Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping (CN), ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (AU), Nanjing Xiaozhuang University (CN), Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CN), National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (CN), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) (CN), Laoshan Laboratory, Shanghai Ocean University (CN), Ocean University of China (CN), East China Normal University (CN), Guangdong Ocean University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai)
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Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
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