The Arctic Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (AOMIP) science goals are to validate and improve Arctic Ocean models in a coordinated fashion and investigate variability of the Arctic Ocean and sea ice at seasonal to decadal time scales, and identify mechanisms responsible for the observed changes. The project?s practical goals are to maintain and enhance the established AOMIP international collaboration to reduce uncertainties in model predictions (model validation and improvements via coordinated experiments and studies); support synthesis across the suite of Arctic models; organize scientific meetings and workshops; conduct collaboration with other MIPs with a special focus on model improvements and analysis; disseminate findings of AOMIP effort to broader communities; and train a new generation of ocean and sea-ice modelers.
The major AOMIP activities will include synthesis (to identify consistent errors across models, propose solutions, and find the most suitable and reliable coupled ice ? ocean models for use in fully coupled regional and global climate models) and process studies (to improve models, investigate processes using model results and observations. In particular, AOMIP will focus on how to better model the arctic halocline which creates the stratification necessary to insulate perennial sea ice from the Atlantic Water layer, how to avoid restoring and flux correction, and the role of different mechanisms influencing heat fluxes in the ocean - sea-ice - atmosphere system. Investigation will continue of the tidal role in arctic climate, parameterization of stress-driven and convection-driven mixing and the role of small meso- and large-scale turbulence (eddies and gyres).
