Sensitivity of the Arctic freshwater content and transport to model resolution

We compare the representation of the Arctic liquid and solid freshwater volumes, and their transports to/from the Arctic, using simulations with different ocean and atmosphere model resolutions from models participating in the EU H2020 PRIMAVERA project. Regarding ocean resolution, we find less liquid freshwater in the central Arctic Ocean and more in the Kara and Laptev seas in the model simulations at higher resolution compared with the model simulations at lower resolution. The mean sea ice thickness does not show a systematic behaviour across models regarding model resolution increase. In terms of atmospheric resolution, we find that both liquid freshwater and mean sea ice thickness decrease when the resolution of the atmospheric model increases. We also analyze differences of Arctic liquid freshwater volume and mean sea ice thickness caused by pre-industrial and historical atmospheric forcings. Pre-industrial simulations show less freshwater volume and increased mean sea ice thickness and export from the Arctic compared with present day simulations. Finally, we find an increasing impact of Arctic freshwater export on North Atlantic convection with increased atmospheric resolution.