[MITgcm-support] exf_albedo : exf package

[Martin Losch]

Julia,

exf_albedo is the ocean surface albedo (water) and should be order 0.1. The default ice albedos are set in seaice_readparms.F (you can change them in data.seaice). Too warm surface water (also underneath ice) can have various reasons, in my experience they are mostly connected to inflow with the wrong temperature or at the wrong depth and extra (too much) mixing that brings up warm deep water. Usually I use KPP as a mixed layer model, but it’s not guaranteed to give the best results.

Martin

> On 05 Oct 2016, at 19:05, Hazel, Julia <jhazel at atmos.ucla.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi-
> 
> My name is Julia Hazel and I’m a PhD student in Physical Oceanography at UCLA.  I’m using the mitgcm to simulate the Weddell Sea around Antarctica.  I was wondering how the parameter exf_albedo is set - whether it’s the albedo of the sea surface, or if it is supposed to be an average albedo of the ocean surface (whether covered with sea ice or not)?
> 
> The Weddell is covered with sea ice throughout most of the year, which would make it’s average surface albedo .8(due to sea ice) versus ocean water (~.1)
> 
> I am using the sea ice package, where I realize the sea ice albedos are used.  But I’m still getting too high surface temperatures in my model runs, and I’m wondering if my choice of exf_albedo could be to blame.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Julia
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