A flexible coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model

A global ocean general circulation model, called LASG/IAP Climate system ocean model (LICOM), is employed to study the influence of climate change on the uptake and storage of anthropogenic CO2 in the global ocean. Two simulations were made: the control run (RUN1) with the climatological daily mean forcing data, and the climate change run (RUN2) with the interannually varying daily mean forcing data from the NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) of the US. The results show that the simulated distributions and storages of anthropogenic dissolved inorganic carbon (anDIC) from both runs are consistent with the data-based results. Compared with the data-based results, the simulations generate higher anDIC concentrations in the upper layer and lower storage amount of anDIC between the subsurface and 1000-m depth, especially in RUN1. A comparison of the two runs shows that the interannually varying forcing can enhance the transport of main water masses, so the rate of interior transport of anDIC is increased. The higher transfer rate of anDIC in RUN2 decreases its high concentration in the upper layer and increases its storage amount below the subsurface, which leads to closer distributions of anDIC in RUN2 to the data-based results than in RUN1. The higher transfer rate in RUN2 also induces larger exchange flux than in RUN1. It is estimated that the global oceanic anthropogenic CO2 uptake was 1.83 and 2.16 Pg C yr−1 in the two runs in 1995, respectively, and as of 1994, the global ocean contained 99 Pg C in RUN1 and 107 Pg C in RUN2 of anDIC, indicating that the model under the interannually varying forcing could take up 8.1% more anthropogenic carbon than the model under the climatological forcing. These values are within the range of other estimates based on observation and model simulation, while the estimates in RUN1 are near the low bound of other works. It is estimated that the variability of root mean square of the global air-sea anthropogenic carbon flux from the simulated monthly mean results of RUN2 with its seasonal cycle and long-term trend removed is 0.1 Pg C yr−1. The most distinct anomalies appear to be in the tropical Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean.

The response of a global ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to different surface heat and freshwater fluxes is examined. The aim is to determine the most appropriate way to spin up an OGCM prior to coupling it with an atmospheric GCM. Attention is focused on surface boundary conditions for salinity since other studies suggest that so-called “mixed” boundary conditions (i.e., a restoring condition on sea surface temperature and flux condition on sea surface salinity) can yield multiple equilibrium states in ocean models. Under the influence of restoring surface boundary conditions, the rate of overturning in the model North Atlantic is in good agreement with observed estimates. Under the influence of mixed surface boundary conditions, however, the rate of deep-water formation in the model North Atlantic is far in excess of the observed estimates. If the equilibrium solution obtained under restoring boundary conditions is subjected to an equivalent set of mixed boundary conditions, the presence...

Much of the deep water in the world oceans forms as relatively dense water on shelves in polar regions, followed by downslope flow of the dense water as a boundary layer plume. This process is omitted from current global ocean general circulation models (GCMs) which, instead, form bottom water only as a result of the large‐scale thermohaline overturning and as a result of deep convection. Here the role of polar boundary layer plumes is investigated by coupling a two‐dimensional plume model to a two‐dimensional (latitude‐depth) dynamical ocean model, which, in turn, is coupled to sea ice and surface climate models. The polar plume mass flux at the shelf brink is parameterized in terms of the rate of sea ice formation, net evaporation, and surface cooling over polar shelves. The presence of plumes has only a modest impact on the high‐latitude temperature response to a greenhouse gas increase and the projected sea level rise due to thermal expansion because, in the present model, the overall response is strongly conditioned by changes in the relative strength of northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere bottom waters which occur whether or not plumes are included. These changes, in turn, appear to depend critically on the spin‐up flow field and density fields produced by the coupled model. It is concluded that polar plume processes should be incorporated in coupled atmosphere‐ocean GCMs but that correct simulation of the ocean density field and surface forcing conditions is a more important priority.

<p>The energy budget of the global ocean circulation highlights the importance of winds and tides as main sources of energy. As wind forcing acts at the ocean surface, tidal potential affects the entire water column and, in regions of rough topography, it generates energy conversion from barotropic to baroclinic high frequency modes. An intercomparison is computed between experiments with and without tidal forcing, using a global ocean general circulation model in two different configurations, respectively mesoscale-permitting and mesoscale-resolving ones. Regardless of the resolution, the contribution of tides to the mean kinetic energy is negligible on the global scale, while it enhances the eddy kinetic energy, especially on continental shelves and rough bottom topography sites, where internal waves are generated before being dissipated or radiated away. The interaction between these waves and mesoscale features is enhanced in the higher-resolution experiments, and their effects on the mean circulation are analysed in two regions where the tidal activity is well documented: the North-West Atlantic Ocean and the Indonesian region. We investigate the impact of internal tides presence on the modelled tidal amplitude, and we include a topographic wave drag as an additional term of internal wave dissipation.</p>

A novel vertical mixing scheme to describe the influence of the non-breaking surface waves in ocean general circulation models is proposed based on the second-order turbulence closure model and a mathematical relationship fitted between the in situ observations of the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate and the calculated velocity shear module of non-breaking surface waves. The non-breaking-wave-generated turbulence mixing coefficients can be calculated empirically in terms of the wave spectral parameters including ΦSW, K, and ω, where ΦSW is the wave number spectrum of the significant wave height, K is the wave number, ω is the surface wave frequency. The effect of the new mixing scheme on global ocean circulation simulation was tested using the MArine Science and NUmerical Modeling ocean model. The results indicate significant improvement in the upper-ocean temperature structure and the mixed layer depth, i.e., the non-breaking-wave-generated turbulence mixing plays an important role in the upper ocean at high latitudes in summer for both hemispheres compared with traditional Mellor-Yamada 2.5 scheme.

The quality of Southern Ocean sea ice simulations in a global ocean general circulation model (GCM) depends decisively on the simulated upper-ocean temperature. This is confirmed by assimilating satellite-derived sea ice concentration to constrain the upper-layer temperature of a sea ice–ocean GCM. The resolution of the model’s sea ice component is about 22 km and thus comparable to the pixel resolution of the satellite data. The ocean component is coarse resolution to afford long-term integrations for investigations of the deep-ocean equilibrium response. Besides improving the sea ice simulation considerably, the simulations with constrained upper-ocean temperature yield much more realistic global deep-ocean properties, in particular when combined with glacial freshwater input. Both outcomes are relatively insensitive to the passive-microwave algorithm used to retrieve the ice concentration being assimilated. The sensitivity of the long-term global deep-ocean properties and circulation to the possible freshwater input from ice shelves and to the parameterization of vertical mixing in the Southern Ocean is reevaluated under the new constraint.

We investigated seasonal variations of the upper ocean temperature and the mixed layer depth (MLD) in an eddy-permitting global ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to assess the OGCM perfermance. The OGCM is based on the GFDL MOM3 which has a horizontal resolution of 0.5 degree and 30 vertical levels. The OGCM was integrated for 68 years using a monthly-mean climatological wind stress forcing. The model sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity were restored to the Levitus climatology with a time scale of 30 days. Annual-mean model SST shows a cold bias <TEX>$(<\;-2^{\circ}C)$</TEX> in the summer hemisphere and a warm bias <TEX>$(>\;1^{\circ}C)$</TEX> in the winter hemisphere mainly due to the restoring boundary condition of temperature. The model MLD captures well the observed features in most areas, with a slightly deep bias. However, in the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea, the model shows significantly deeper MLD than the climatology-mainly due to weak salinity stratifications in the model. For amplitude of seasonal variation, the model SST is smaller <TEX>$(1{\sim}3^{\circ}C)$</TEX> than the observation largely due to the restoring surface boundary condition while the model MLD has larger seasonal variation <TEX>$({\sim}50m)$</TEX>. It is suggested that for more realistic simulation of the upper ocean structure in the present eddy-permitting ocean model, more refinements in the surface boundary condition for the thermohaline forcing and parameterization for vertical mixing are required, together with the incorporation of a sea-ice model.

The circulation in the South Atlantic Ocean has been simulated within a global ocean general circulation model. Preliminary analysis of the modelled ocean circulation in the region indicates a rather close agreement of the simulated upper ocean flows with conventional notions of the large-scale geostrophic currents in the region. The modelled South Atlantic Ocean witnesses the return flow and export of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) at its northern boundary, the inflow of a rather barotropic Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) through the Drake Passage, and the inflow of warm saline Agulhas water around the Cape of Good Hope. The Agulhas leakage amounts to 8.7 Sv, within recent estimates of the mass transport shed westward at the Agulhas retroflection. Topographic steering of the ACC dominates the structure of flow in the circumpolar ocean. The Benguela Current is seen to be fed by a mixture of saline Indian Ocean water (originating from the Agulhas Current) and fresher Subantarctic surface water (originating in the ACC). The Benguela Current is seen to modify its flow and fate with depth; near the surface it flows north-westwards bifurcating most of its transport northward into the North Atlantic Ocean (for ultimate replacement of North Atlantic surface waters lost to the NADW conveyor). Deeper in the water column, more of the Benguela Current is destined to return with the Brazil Current, though northward flows are still generated where the Benguela Current extension encounters the coast of South America. At intermediate levels, these northward currents trace the flow of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) equatorward, though even more AAIW is seen to recirculate poleward in the subtropical gyre. In spite of the model's rather coarse resolution, some subtle features of the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence are simulated rather well, including the latitude at which the two currents meet. Conceptual diagrams of the recirculation and interocean exchange of thermocline, intermediate and deep waters are constructed from an analysis of flows bound between isothermal and isobaric surfaces. This analysis shows how the return path of NADW is partitioned between a cold water route through the Drake Passage (6.5 Sv), a warm water route involving the Agulhas Current sheeding thermocline water westward (2.5 Sv), and a recirculation of intermediate water originating in the Indian Ocean (1.6 Sv).

The thermohaline hysteresis response to varying North Atlantic freshwater forcing is studied by means of a three-dimensional global ocean general circulation model (OGCM). The influence of vertical diffusivity is examined using a wide range of mixing coefficients. For sufficiently large vertical diffusivity the model shows a pronounced hysteresis behavior, so that two equilibrium states of the thermohaline circulation are found: one mode with intense deep-water formation in the North Atlantic (“on” mode) and one mode with strongly reduced convective activity (“off” mode). By decreasing the diffusivity, the two branches of the hysteresis merge. In addition, the effect of numerical diffusion is analyzed by applying different advection schemes. A positive feedback between overturning strength and the numerical diffusivity of upstream advection is found, resulting in a reduced stability of the “on” mode. Comparing the results with those from zonally averaged models exhibits substantial differences regarding the stability properties of the thermohaline circulation. Freshwater transports by horizontal gyres have an important effect on the overturning circulation in the OGCM.

Abstract. We describe the seasonal and interannual variability of volume transports in the Weddell and Ross Seas using the 1/12° 20-yr simulation of the OCCAM global ocean general circulation model. The average simulated full-depth cumulative volume transports were 28.5 ± 2.9 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) and 13.4 ± 5.2 Sv, across the main export regions of the Weddell and Ross Seas, respectively. The values of mean outflow of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) (defined by neutral density γn ≥ 28.27 kg m−3) from the Weddell and Ross Seas of 10.6 ± 3.1 Sv and 0.5 ± 0.7 Sv, respectively, agree with the range reported in historical observational studies. The export of Weddell Sea dense water in OCCAM is primarily determined by the strength of the Weddell Gyre. Variability in AABW export is predominantly at periods of ~1 yr and 2–4 yr.

Observations show a multidecadal signal in the North Atlantic ocean, but the underlying mechanism and cause of its timescale remain unknown. Previous studies have suggested that it may be driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which is the dominant pattern of winter atmospheric variability. To further address this issue, the global ocean general circulation model, Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO), is driven using a 2,000 years long white noise forcing associated with the NAO. Focusing on key ocean circulation patterns, we show that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and Sub-polar gyre (SPG) strength both have enhanced power at low frequencies but no dominant timescale, and thus provide no evidence for a oscillatory ocean-only mode of variability. Instead, both indices respond linearly to the NAO forcing, but with different response times. The variability of the AMOC at 30°N is strongly enhanced on timescales longer than 90 years, while that of the SPG strength starts increasing at 15 years. The different response characteristics are confirmed by constructing simple statistical models that show AMOC and SPG variability can be related to the NAO variability of the previous 53 and 10 winters, respectively. Alternatively, the AMOC and the SPG strength can be reconstructed with Auto-regressive (AR) models of order seven and five, respectively. Both statistical models reconstruct interannual and multidecadal AMOC variability well, while on the other hand, the AR(5) reconstruction of the SPG strength only captures multidecadal variability. Using these methods to reconstruct ocean variables can be useful for prediction and model intercomparision.

ORCA025: Performance Analysis on Scalar Architecture

Peer Reviewed

The Chandler wobble is an excited resonance of the Earth's rotation having a period of about 14 months. Although it has been under investigation for more than a century, its excitation mechanism has remained elusive. Here, the angular momentum of the atmosphere computed from the products of a numerical weather prediction analysis system and the angular momentum of the oceans computed from a global oceanic general circulation model driven by observed surface winds and fluxes are used to show that during 1985.0–1996.0 the Chandler wobble was excited by a combination of atmospheric and oceanic processes, with the dominant excitation mechanism being ocean‐bottom pressure fluctuations.

During the CINDY/DYNAMO field campaign, exceptionally large upper ocean responses to strong westerly wind events associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) were observed in the central equatorial Indian Ocean. Strong eastward equatorial currents in the upper ocean lasted more than one month from late November 2011 to early January 2012. The remote ocean response to these unique MJO events are investigated using a high resolution (1/25°) global ocean general circulation model along with the satellite altimeter data. The local ocean response to the MJO events are realistically simulated by the global model based on the comparison with the data collected during the field campaign. The satellite altimeter data show that anomalous sea surface height (SSH) associated with the strong eastward jets propagated eastward as an equatorial Kelvin wave. The positive SSH anomalies then partly propagate westward as a reflected Rossby wave. The SSH anomalies associated with the reflected Rossby wave in the southern hemisphere propagate all the way to the western boundary. These remote ocean responses are well simulated by the global model. The analysis of the model simulation indicates the significant influence of reflected Rossby waves on sub-seasonal variability of Somali current system near the equator. The analysis further suggests that the reflected Rossby wave causes a substantial change in the structure of the Seychelles–Chagos thermocline ridge, which contributes to significant SST anomalies.