Comparison between SAR derived sea ice displacement and hindcasts by the operational ocean model HIROMB

The purpose of this paper is to compare measurements of sea ice displacement from SAR imagery with ice floe drift trajectories modeled by the operational ocean circulation model HIROMB. The study examines the ice movement in the Fram Strait during a two-week period in April, 2011. The results indicate that the HIROMB model overestimates the drift speed by a factor 1 - 2.5, which may be attributed to an underestimated thickness of the ice. The model data also exhibit a directional offset in the positive clockwise direction of 10 - 30 degrees over the whole study region. The results of this study may be used to direct the model development and improve the model initialization.