The presence of thin sea ice is indicative of active freezing conditions in the polar ocean. We propose a simple yet effective method to incorporate information of thin-ice category into coupled ocean-sea-ice model simulations. In our approach, the thin-ice distribution restricts thick-ice extent and constrains atmosphere-ocean heat exchange through the sea ice. Our model simulation with the incorporation of satellite-derived thin-ice data for the Arctic Ocean showed much improved representation of sea-ice and upper-ocean fields, including sea-ice thickness in the Canadian Archipelago and the region north of Greenland, mixed-layer depth over the Central Arctic, and surface-layer salinity over the open ocean. Enhanced sea-ice production by the thin-ice data constraint increased the total sea-ice volume of the Arctic Ocean by 5x103-10x103 km(3). Subsequent sea-ice melting was also enhanced, leading to the greater amplitude of the seasonal cycle by approximately 2x103 km(3) (15% of the baseline value from the experiment without the thin-ice data incorporation). Overall, our results demonstrate that the incorporation of satellite-derived information on thin sea ice has great potential for the improvement of coupled ocean-sea-ice simulations.