The arctic sea ice covers substantially contribute to global climate. To understand their dynamics, we need to model and analyse the complex mechanical and thermodynamical properties of sea ice and its interaction with oceanic and atmospheric currents.

The governing equations of large-scale sea ice dynamics that form the basis of virtually all sea ice models in climate science were suggested in a seminal paper by W.D. Hibler in 1979. Whereas various numerical and computational approaches to Hibler's model have been developed and implemented, Hibler's model has not been investigated from an analytical perspective until very recently.

The aim of this project is to study Hibler's model both from an analysis and a numerical analysis point of view. In particular, we want to investigate and tune Hibler's model for existence, uniqueness and stability of solutions, develop the analysis and numerical analysis of Hibler's model without the standard regularisation terms, prove a rigorous convergence result for recent numerical approximations of Hibler's model, and investigate existence and properties of solutions of specific coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea-ice systems.