Fully Coupled Interactions between Sea Ice and Waves in the Bohai Sea under Different Ice Conditions

A wave-ice interaction coupled model that resolves both ice-induced wave attenuation and wave-induced ice breakage was implemented within the Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) framework and applied to the Bohai Sea, one of the lowest-latitude seasonally ice-covered seas in the Northern Hemisphere. Multi-source observations were used to validate the simulated wave and sea ice variables. We investigate wave–ice interactions under different ice conditions (mild, normal and severe ice years) and assess coupling effects by comparing a fully coupled (two-way) configuration with an uncoupled configuration and a one-way coupled configuration that accounts only for ice-induced wave attenuation. The presence of sea ice reduces wave energy and alters wave propagation. In turn, wave-driven processes exert complex influences on sea ice, potentially mediated by wave–current interactions, and wave activity can enhance melting along the ice fringe, highlighting the importance of explicitly representing two-way wave–ice interactions for accurately simulating ice-cover dynamics in the Bohai Sea.