This two years project will validate the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of a sea ice model for the area, validate it against the satellite and drifting ice buoys available to the project, fine tune the rheology parameters for the area and set up a second nest at 1 km resolution on the Kara Gate to reproduce instances of clotting of the Kara Gate.

The convergence and divergence of sea ice will be related to weather and ocean current conditions in order to hindcast and interpret dangerous situations for navigation documented in the recent years.
Because of the known deficiencies of the rheology of present-day’s elastic- viscous-plastic sea ice models, alternative rheologies prone to realistic applications in a coupled ice-ocean model system will be evaluated.