An EC-Earth coupled atmosphere–ocean single-column model (AOSCM.v1_EC-Earth3) for studying coupled marine and polar processes
<p>Single-column models (SCMs) have been used as tools to help develop numerical weather prediction and global climate models for several decades. SCMs decouple small-scale processes from large-scale forcing, which allows the testing of physical parameterisations in a controlled environment...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | https://www.geosci-model-dev.net/11/4117/2018/gmd-11-4117-2018.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Single-column models (SCMs) have been used as tools to help develop numerical
weather prediction and global climate models for several decades. SCMs
decouple small-scale processes from large-scale forcing, which allows the
testing of physical parameterisations in a controlled environment with
reduced computational cost. Typically, either the ocean, sea ice or
atmosphere is fully modelled and assumptions have to be made regarding the
boundary conditions from other subsystems, adding a potential source of
error. Here, we present a fully coupled atmosphere–ocean SCM (AOSCM), which
is based on the global climate model EC-Earth3. The initial configuration of
the AOSCM consists of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean
(NEMO3.6) (ocean), the Louvain-la-Neuve Sea Ice Model (LIM3) (sea ice), the
Open Integrated Forecasting System (OpenIFS) cycle 40r1 (atmosphere), and
OASIS3-MCT (coupler).</p><p>Results from the AOSCM are presented at three locations: the tropical
Atlantic, the midlatitude Pacific and the Arctic. At all three locations,
in situ observations are available for comparison. We find that the coupled
AOSCM can capture the observed atmospheric and oceanic evolution based on
comparisons with buoy data, soundings and ship-based observations. The model
evolution is sensitive to the initial conditions and forcing data imposed on
the column. Comparing coupled and uncoupled configurations of the model can
help disentangle model feedbacks. We demonstrate that the AOSCM in the
current set-up is a valuable tool to advance our understanding in marine and
polar boundary layer processes and the interactions between the individual
components of the system (atmosphere, sea ice and ocean).</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |