scholarly journals Coupled general circulation modeling of the tropical Pacific

1998 ◽  
Vol 103 (C7) ◽  
pp. 14357-14373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Delecluse ◽  
Michael K. Davey ◽  
Yoshiteru Kitamura ◽  
S. G. H. Philander ◽  
Max Suarez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Circulation Modeling ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Successive Modulation of ENSO to the Future Greenhouse Warming

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soon-Il An ◽  
Jong-Seong Kug ◽  
Yoo-Geun Ham ◽  
In-Sik Kang
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
General Circulation Models ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Greenhouse Warming ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Subsurface Temperature ◽  
Climate System Model ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract The multidecadal modulation of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) due to greenhouse warming has been analyzed herein by means of diagnostics of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) coupled general circulation models (CGCMs) and the eigenanalysis of a simplified version of an intermediate ENSO model. The response of the global-mean troposphere temperature to increasing greenhouse gases is more likely linear, while the amplitude and period of ENSO fluctuates in a multidecadal time scale. The climate system model outputs suggest that the multidecadal modulation of ENSO is related to the delayed response of the subsurface temperature in the tropical Pacific compared to the response time of the sea surface temperature (SST), which would lead a modulation of the vertical temperature gradient. Furthermore, an eigenanalysis considering only two parameters, the changes in the zonal contrast of the mean background SST and the changes in the vertical contrast between the mean surface and subsurface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, exhibits a good agreement with the CGCM outputs in terms of the multidecadal modulations of the ENSO amplitude and period. In particular, the change in the vertical contrast, that is, change in difference between the subsurface temperature and SST, turns out to be more influential on the ENSO modulation than changes in the mean SST itself.

Tropical Atmospheric Variability Forced by Oceanic Internal Variability

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Jochum ◽  
Clara Deser ◽  
Adam Phillips
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Rainfall Variability ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Internal Variability ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Atmospheric Variability ◽  
Instability Waves ◽  
Tropical Instability Waves ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract Atmospheric general circulation model experiments are conducted to quantify the contribution of internal oceanic variability in the form of tropical instability waves (TIWs) to interannual wind and rainfall variability in the tropical Pacific. It is found that in the tropical Pacific, along the equator, and near 25°N and 25°S, TIWs force a significant increase in wind and rainfall variability from interseasonal to interannual time scales. Because of the stochastic nature of TIWs, this means that climate models that do not take them into account will underestimate the strength and number of extreme events and may overestimate forecast capability.

Evaluating the performance of CMIP6 models in the tropical Atlantic: mean state, variability, and remote impacts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Richter ◽  
Hiroki Tokinaga
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
General Circulation Models ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Westerly Wind ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mean State ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

<p>General circulation models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) are examined with respect to their ability to simulate the mean state and variability of the tropical Atlantic, as well as its linkage to the tropical Pacific. While, on average, mean state biases have improved little relative to the previous intercomparison (CMIP5), there are now a few models with very small biases. In particular the equatorial Atlantic warm SST and westerly wind biases are mostly eliminated in these models. Furthermore, interannual variability in the equatorial and subtropical Atlantic is quite realistic in a number of CMIP6 models, which suggests that they should be useful tools for understanding and predicting variability patterns. The evolution of equatorial Atlantic biases follows the same pattern as in previous model generations, with westerly wind biases during boreal spring preceding warm sea-surface temperature (SST) biases in the east during boreal summer. A substantial portion of the westerly wind bias exists already in atmosphere-only simulations forced with observed SST, suggesting an atmospheric origin. While variability is relatively realistic in many models, SSTs seem less responsive to wind forcing than observed, both on the equator and in the subtropics, possibly due to an excessively deep mixed layer originating in the oceanic component. Thus models with realistic SST amplitude tend to have excessive wind amplitude. The models with the smallest mean state biases all have relatively high resolution but there are also a few low-resolution models that perform similarly well, indicating that resolution is not the only way toward reducing tropical Atlantic biases. The results also show a relatively weak link between mean state biases and the quality of the simulated variability. The linkage to the tropical Pacific shows a wide range of behaviors across models, indicating the need for further model improvement.</p>

scholarly journals CAPE Variations in the Current Climate and in a Climate Change

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1997-2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Ye ◽  
Anthony D. Del Genio ◽  
Kenneth K-W. Lo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Relative Humidity ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Moist Convection ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Current Climate ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract Observed variations of convective available potential energy (CAPE) in the current climate provide one useful test of the performance of cumulus parameterizations used in general circulation models (GCMs). It is found that frequency distributions of tropical Pacific CAPE, as well as the dependence of CAPE on surface wet-bulb potential temperature (Θw) simulated by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies’s GCM, agree well with that observed during the Australian Monsoon Experiment period. CAPE variability in the current climate greatly overestimates climatic changes in basinwide CAPE in the tropical Pacific in response to a 2°C increase in sea surface temperature (SST) in the GCM because of the different physics involved. In the current climate, CAPE variations in space and time are dominated by regional changes in boundary layer temperature and moisture, which in turn are controlled by SST patterns and large-scale motions. Geographical thermodynamic structure variations in the middle and upper troposphere are smaller because of the canceling effects of adiabatic cooling and subsidence warming in the rising and sinking branches of the Walker and Hadley circulations. In a forced equilibrium global climate change, temperature change is fairly well constrained by the change in the moist adiabatic lapse rate and thus the upper troposphere warms to a greater extent than the surface. For this reason, climate change in CAPE is better predicted by assuming that relative humidity remains constant and that the temperature changes according to the moist adiabatic lapse rate change of a parcel with 80% relative humidity lifted from the surface. The moist adiabatic assumption is not symmetrically applicable to a warmer and colder climate: In a warmer regime moist convection determines the tropical temperature structure, but when the climate becomes colder the effect of moist convection diminishes and the large-scale dynamics and radiative processes become relatively important. Although a prediction based on the change in moist adiabat matches the GCM simulation of climate change averaged over the tropical Pacific basin, it does not match the simulation regionally because small changes in the general circulation change the local boundary layer relative humidity by 1%–2%. Thus, the prediction of regional climate change in CAPE is also dependent on subtle changes in the dynamics.

scholarly journals Impacts of Interhemispheric Asymmetric Thermal Forcing on Tropical Pacific Climate: Surface Air–Sea Coupling and Subduction

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun Li ◽  
Lixin Wu ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
The North ◽  
Mean Circulation ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract Paleoclimate observations and modeling studies suggest that extratropical climate change affects the tropical Pacific. A global coupled general circulation model is used to investigate the equatorial Pacific response to extratropical surface heat flux forcing that is downward (upward) poleward of 40°N (S). The equatorial response consists of two distinct stages: the zonal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient strengthens for the first two to three decades and then weakens afterward. In the first stage, fast surface air–sea coupling feedback mechanism communicates the extratropical warming (cooling) from the North (South) Pacific toward the equator. The second stage is characterized by a basinwide shoaling of the tropical Pacific thermocline as the subtropical cell (STC) advects cold water from the South Pacific along the thermocline. This preference of Southern Hemisphere anomalies is due to the meridional asymmetry in the mean circulation: the interior pathway for STC is open south but partially blocked north of the equator. Paleoclimate implications are discussed.

scholarly journals A CGCM Study on the Interaction between IOD and ENSO

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1688-1705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swadhin K. Behera ◽  
Jing Jia Luo ◽  
Sebastien Masson ◽  
Suryachandra A. Rao ◽  
Hirofumi Sakuma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Walker Circulation ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Enso Variability ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Sst Anomalies ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract An atmosphere–ocean coupled general circulation model known as the Scale Interaction Experiment Frontier version 1 (SINTEX-F1) model is used to understand the intrinsic variability of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). In addition to a globally coupled control experiment, a Pacific decoupled noENSO experiment has been conducted. In the latter, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability is suppressed by decoupling the tropical Pacific Ocean from the atmosphere. The ocean–atmosphere conditions related to the IOD are realistically simulated by both experiments including the characteristic east–west dipole in SST anomalies. This demonstrates that the dipole mode in the Indian Ocean is mainly determined by intrinsic processes within the basin. In the EOF analysis of SST anomalies from the noENSO experiment, the IOD takes the dominant seat instead of the basinwide monopole mode. Even the coupled feedback among anomalies of upper-ocean heat content, SST, wind, and Walker circulation over the Indian Ocean is reproduced. As in the observation, IOD peaks in boreal fall for both model experiments. In the absence of ENSO variability the interannual IOD variability is dominantly biennial. The ENSO variability is found to affect the periodicity, strength, and formation processes of the IOD in years of co-occurrences. The amplitudes of SST anomalies in the western pole of co-occurring IODs are aided by dynamical and thermodynamical modifications related to the ENSO-induced wind variability. Anomalous latent heat flux and vertical heat convergence associated with the modified Walker circulation contribute to the alteration of western anomalies. It is found that 42% of IOD events affected by changes in the Walker circulation are related to the tropical Pacific variabilities including ENSO. The formation is delayed until boreal summer for those IODs, which otherwise form in boreal spring as in the noENSO experiment.

scholarly journals Improving SST Anomaly Simulations in a Layer Ocean Model with an Embedded Entrainment Temperature Submodel

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 4638-4663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong-Hua Zhang ◽  
Antonio J. Busalacchi ◽  
Raghuram G. Murtugudde
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Subsurface Water ◽  
Subsurface Temperature ◽  
Sst Anomaly ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sst Anomalies ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract In this study, an improved sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly (SSTA) solution for the tropical Pacific is presented by explicitly embedding into a layer ocean general circulation model (OGCM) a separate SSTA submodel with an empirical parameterization for the temperature of subsurface water entrained into the ocean mixed layer (Te). Instead of using subsurface temperature directly from the OGCM, Te anomalies for the embedded SSTA submodel are calculated from a historical data-based empirical procedure in terms of sea level (SL) anomalies simulated from the OGCM. An inverse modeling approach is first adopted to estimate Te anomalies from the SSTA equation using observed SST and simulated upper-ocean currents from the OGCM. A relationship between Te and SL anomalies is then obtained by utilizing an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis technique. The empirical Te parameterization optimally leads to a better balanced depiction of the subsurface effect on SST variability by the mean upwelling of anomalous subsurface temperature and vertical mixing in the equatorial Pacific. As compared with a standard OGCM simulation, SSTA simulations from the embedded submodel exhibit more realistic variability, with significantly increased correlation and reduced SSTA errors due to the optimized empirical Te parameterization. In the Niño-3 region (5°S–5°N, 150°–90°W), the anomaly correlation and root-mean-square (RMS) error of the simulated SST anomalies for the period 1963–96 from the standard OGCM are 0.74° and 0.58°C, while from the embedded SSTA submodel they are 0.94° and 0.29°C in the Te-dependent experiment, and 0.86° and 0.41°C in the experiment with one-dependent-year data excluded, respectively. Cross validation and sensitivity experiments to training periods for building the Te parameterization are made to illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the approach. Moreover, the impact on simulations of SST anomalies and El Niño are examined in hybrid coupled atmosphere–ocean models (HCMs) consisting of the OGCM and a statistical atmospheric wind stress anomaly model that is constructed from a singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis. Results from coupled runs with and without embedding the SSTA submodel are compared. It is demonstrated that incorporating the embedded SSTA submodel in the context of an OGCM has a significant impact on performance of the HCMs and the behavior of the coupled system, with more realistic simulations of interannual SST anomalies (e.g., the amplitude and structure) in the tropical Pacific.

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