scholarly journals Northern Hemisphere storminess in the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM1-M)

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 8975-9015
Author(s):  
E. M. Knudsen ◽  
J. E. Walsh

Abstract. Metrics of storm activity in Northern Hemisphere high- and midlatitudes are evaluated from historical output and future projections by the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM1-M) coupled global climate model. The European Re-Analysis Interim (ERA-Interim) and the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4), a global climate model of the same vintage as NorESM1-M, provide benchmarks for comparison. The focus is on the autumn and early winter (September through December), the period when the ongoing and projected Arctic sea ice retreat is greatest. Storm tracks derived from a vorticity-based algorithm for storm identification are reproduced well by NorESM1-M, although the tracks are somewhat better resolved in the higher-resolution ERA-Interim and CCSM4. The tracks are projected to shift polewards in the future as climate changes under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) forcing scenarios. Cyclones are projected to become generally more intense in the high-latitudes, especially over the Alaskan region, although in some other areas the intensity is projected to decrease. While projected changes in track density are less coherent, there is a general tendency towards less frequent storms in midlatitudes and more frequent storms in high-latitudes, especially the Baffin Bay/Davis Strait region. Autumn precipitation is projected to increase significantly across the entire high-latitudes. Together with the projected increases in storm intensity and sea level and the loss of sea ice, this increase in precipitation implies a greater vulnerability to coastal flooding and erosion, especially in the Alaskan region. The projected changes in storm intensity and precipitation (as well as sea ice and sea level pressure) scale generally linearly with the RCP value of the forcing and with time through the 21st century.

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 2335-2355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erlend M. Knudsen ◽  
John E. Walsh

Abstract. Metrics of storm activity in Northern Hemisphere high and midlatitudes are evaluated from historical output and future projections by the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM1-M) coupled global climate model. The European Re-Analysis Interim (ERA-Interim) and the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4), a global climate model of the same vintage as NorESM1-M, provide benchmarks for comparison. The focus is on the autumn and early winter (September through December) – the period when the ongoing and projected Arctic sea ice retreat is the greatest. Storm tracks derived from a vorticity-based algorithm for storm identification are reproduced well by NorESM1-M, although the tracks are somewhat better resolved in the higher-resolution ERA-Interim and CCSM4. The tracks show indications of shifting polewards in the future as climate changes under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) forcing scenarios. Cyclones are projected to become generally more intense in the high latitudes, especially over the Alaskan region, although in some other areas the intensity is projected to decrease. While projected changes in track density are less coherent, there is a general tendency towards less frequent storms in midlatitudes and more frequent storms in high latitudes, especially the Baffin Bay/Davis Strait region in September. Autumn precipitation is projected to increase significantly across the entire high latitudes. Together with the projected loss of sea ice and increases in storm intensity and sea level, this increase in precipitation implies a greater vulnerability to coastal flooding and erosion, especially in the Alaskan region. The projected changes in storm intensity and precipitation (as well as sea ice and sea level pressure) scale generally linearly with the RCP value of the forcing and with time through the 21st century.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 10677-10710
Author(s):  
P. B. Holden ◽  
N. R. Edwards ◽  
K. Fraedrich ◽  
E. Kirk ◽  
F. Lunkeit ◽  
...  

Abstract. We describe the development, tuning and climate of PLASIM-GENIE, a new intermediate complexity Atmosphere–Ocean Global Climate Model (AOGCM), built by coupling the Planet Simulator to the GENIE earth system model. PLASIM-GENIE supersedes "GENIE-2", a coupling of GENIE to the Reading IGCM. It has been developed to join the limited number of models that bridge the gap between EMICS with simplified atmospheric dynamics and state of the art AOGCMs. A 1000 year simulation with PLASIM-GENIE requires approximately two weeks on a single node of a 2.1 GHz AMD 6172 CPU. An important motivation for intermediate complexity models is the evaluation of uncertainty. We here demonstrate the tractability of PLASIM-GENIE ensembles by deriving a "subjective" tuning of the model with a 50 member ensemble of 1000 year simulations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 513-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Nazarenko ◽  
James Hansen ◽  
Nikolai Tausnev ◽  
Reto Ruedy

AbstractThe Q.-flux Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) global climate model, in which an atmospheric general circulation model is coupled to a mixed-layer ocean with specified horizontal heat transports, is used to simulate the transient and equilibrium climate response to a gradual increase of carbon dioxide (1% per year increase of CO2 to doubled CO2). The results indicate that the current GISS model has a high sensitivity with a global annual warming of about 4°C for doubled CO2 . Enhanced warming is found at higher latitudes near sea-ice margins due to retreat of sea ice in the greenhouse experiment. Surface warming is larger in winter than in summer, in part because of the reductions in ice cover and thickness that insulate the winter atmosphere from the ocean. The annual mean reduction of sea-ice cover due to doubled CO2 is about 30% for the Northern Hemisphere. The CO2 experiment has a 70% reduction of sea-ice area and 55% thinning of ice in August in the Northern Hemisphere. Noticeable reduction of sea-ice cover has been found in both historical records and satellite observations. The largest reduction of simulated sea-ice extent occurs in summer, consistent with observations.


Author(s):  
Bo-Joung Park ◽  
Seung-Ki Min ◽  
Evan Weller

Abstract Summer season has lengthened substantially across Northern Hemisphere (NH) land over the past decades, which has been attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases. This study examines additional future changes in summer season onset and withdrawal under 1.5℃ and 2.0℃ global warming conditions using multiple atmospheric global climate model (AGCM) large-ensemble simulations from the Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts (HAPPI) project. Five AGCMs provide more than 100 runs of 10-year length for three experiments: All-Hist (current decade: 2006-2015), Plus15, and Plus20 (1.5℃ and 2.0℃ above pre-industrial condition, respectively). Results show that with 1.5℃ and 2.0℃ warmer conditions summer season will become longer by a few days to weeks over entire NH lands, with slightly larger contributions by delay in withdrawal due to stronger warming in late summer. Stronger changes are observed more in middle latitudes than high latitudes and largest expansion (up to three weeks) is found over East Asia and the Mediterranean. Associated changes in summer-like day frequency is further analyzed focusing on the extended summer edges. The hot days occur more frequently in lower latitudes including East Asia, USA and Mediterranean, in accord with largest summer season lengthening. Further, difference between Plus15 and Plus20 indicates that summer season lengthening and associated increases in hot days can be reduced significantly if warming is limited to 1.5℃. Overall, similar results are obtained from CMIP5 coupled GCM simulations (based on RCP8.5 scenario experiments), suggesting a weak influence of air-sea coupling on summer season timing changes.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 5946-5961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Sedlacek ◽  
Jean-François Lemieux ◽  
Lawrence A. Mysak ◽  
L. Bruno Tremblay ◽  
David M. Holland

Abstract The granular sea ice model (GRAN) from Tremblay and Mysak is converted from Cartesian to spherical coordinates. In this conversion, the metric terms in the divergence of the deviatoric stress and in the strain rates are included. As an application, the GRAN is coupled to the global Earth System Climate Model from the University of Victoria. The sea ice model is validated against standard datasets. The sea ice volume and area exported through Fram Strait agree well with values obtained from in situ and satellite-derived estimates. The sea ice velocity in the interior Arctic agrees well with buoy drift data. The thermodynamic behavior of the sea ice model over a seasonal cycle at one location in the Beaufort Sea is validated against the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) datasets. The thermodynamic growth rate in the model is almost twice as large as the observed growth rate, and the melt rate is 25% lower than observed. The larger growth rate is due to thinner ice at the beginning of the SHEBA period and the absence of internal heat storage in the ice layer in the model. The simulated lower summer melt is due to the smaller-than-observed surface melt.


2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1913-1924 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tous ◽  
G. Zappa ◽  
R. Romero ◽  
L. Shaffrey ◽  
P. L. Vidale

2006 ◽  
Vol 52 (178) ◽  
pp. 433-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Nazarenko ◽  
Nickolai Tausnev ◽  
James Hansen

AbstractUsing a global climate model coupled with an ocean and a sea-ice model, we compare the effects of doubling CO2 and halving CO2 on sea-ice cover and connections with the atmosphere and ocean. An overall warming in the 2 × CO2 experiment causes reduction of sea-ice extent by 15%, with maximum decrease in summer and autumn, consistent with observed seasonal sea-ice changes. The intensification of the Northern Hemisphere circulation is reflected in the positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO), associated with higher-than-normal surface pressure south of about 50° N and lower-than-normal surface pressure over the high northern latitudes. Strengthening the polar cell causes enhancement of westerlies around the Arctic perimeter during winter. Cooling, in the 0.5 × CO2 experiment, leads to thicker and more extensive sea ice. In the Southern Hemisphere, the increase in ice-covered area (28%) dominates the ice-thickness increase (5%) due to open ocean to the north. In the Northern Hemisphere, sea-ice cover increases by only 8% due to the enclosed land/sea configuration, but sea ice becomes much thicker (108%). Substantial weakening of the polar cell due to increase in sea-level pressure over polar latitudes leads to a negative trend of the winter AO index. The model reproduces large year-to-year variability under both cooling and warming conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 7708-7719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Gaetani ◽  
Elsa Mohino

Abstract In this study the capability of eight state-of-the-art ocean–atmosphere coupled models in predicting the monsoonal precipitation in the Sahel on a decadal time scale is assessed. To estimate the importance of the initialization, the predictive skills of two different CMIP5 experiments are compared, a set of 10 decadal hindcasts initialized every 5 years in the period 1961–2009 and the historical simulations in the period 1961–2005. Results indicate that predictive skills are highly model dependent: the Fourth Generation Canadian Coupled Global Climate Model (CanCM4), Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques Coupled Global Climate Model, version 5 (CNRM-CM5), and Max Planck Institute Earth System Model, low resolution (MPI-ESM-LR) models show improved skill in the decadal hindcasts, while the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 5 (MIROC5) is skillful in both the decadal and historical experiments. The Beijing Climate Center, Climate System Model, version 1.1 (BCC-CSM1.1), Hadley Centre Coupled Model, version 3 (HadCM3), L'Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace Coupled Model, version 5, coupled with NEMO, low resolution (IPSL-CM5A-LR), and Meteorological Research Institute Coupled Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Model, version 3 (MRI-CGCM3) models show insignificant or no skill in predicting the Sahelian precipitation. Skillful predictions are produced by models properly describing the SST multidecadal variability and the initialization appears to play an important role in this respect.


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