Status and prospects for the neXtSIM-F CMEMS operational forecast

<p>The neXtSIM-F operational forecast was upgraded in December 2021, with the following developments:</p><ul><li>improvements to the rheology, with the neXtSIM model now running the latest version of the Brittle Bingham-Maxwell rheology (BBM).<br>&#160; The previous version&#160; was running a preliminary version of the BBM rheology.</li> <li>The model domain was extended to include the Labrador Sea, Hudson and Baffin Bay.</li> <li>Better tuning of dynamic (eg of basal stress parameters for the fast ice off the coast of the eastern Arctic)&#160; and thermodynamic parameters.</li> </ul><p>The upgrade resulted in good improvements to the ice thickness and extent, although drift developed a slight slow bias. However the bias is of the order<br>of the observation error (1-1.25km/day).</p><p>Planned developments for the next 3 years include:</p><ul><li>assimilation of ice thickness data</li> <li>assimilation of ice extent from NIC ice charts (National Ice Center, USA)&#160; instead of from passive microwave (OSISAF).</li> <li>increased resolution, to go from about 7.5km to about 3.75km</li> <li>a multi-year reanalysis to be updated every month</li> </ul>