U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Impact of Lateral Mixing in the Ocean on El Nino in a Suite of Fully Coupled Climate Models
Abstract
Abstract We examine the dependence of the amplitude of the El Nino‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the mixing coefficient parameterizing the lateral mixing of tracers (A Redi ) The value of this coefficient is very uncertain, ranging in Earth System Models between a few hundred and a few thousand m 2 s −1 , with some observational estimates showing even higher values. A suite of simulations is made with two spatially varying distributions of A Redi derived from satellite observations as well as four simulations where a spatially constant A Redi is varied over a factor of 6. Surprisingly, larger values of A Redi result in stronger ENSO variability despite the higher mixing coefficients producing more efficient lateral diffusive damping of anomalies. This is because lateral mixing also warms the cold tongue, increasing vertical temperature gradients and decreasing horizontal temperature gradients. Larger vertical temperature gradients make sea surface temperatures more responsive to atmospheric forcing, while smaller horizontal temperature gradients shift the location of convection and make the atmosphere more responsive to sea surface temperature anomalies. The last effect holds across simulations as well as within individual simulations and thus also helps to explain interdecadal variability in ENSO amplitude. By contrast, amore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
[2]
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Columbia University New York NY USA
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1408245
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1408248; OSTI ID: 1511478
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0007066
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Volume: 9 Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; El Nino; mesoscale mixing; coupled modeling; eddy diffusion
Citation Formats
Gnanadesikan, Anand, Russell, Alexandria, Pradal, Marie‐Aude, and Abernathey, Ryan. Impact of Lateral Mixing in the Ocean on El Nino in a Suite of Fully Coupled Climate Models. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2017MS000917.
Gnanadesikan, Anand, Russell, Alexandria, Pradal, Marie‐Aude, & Abernathey, Ryan. Impact of Lateral Mixing in the Ocean on El Nino in a Suite of Fully Coupled Climate Models. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000917
Gnanadesikan, Anand, Russell, Alexandria, Pradal, Marie‐Aude, and Abernathey, Ryan. 2017.
"Impact of Lateral Mixing in the Ocean on El Nino in a Suite of Fully Coupled Climate Models". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000917.
@article{osti_1408245,
title = {Impact of Lateral Mixing in the Ocean on El Nino in a Suite of Fully Coupled Climate Models},
author = {Gnanadesikan, Anand and Russell, Alexandria and Pradal, Marie‐Aude and Abernathey, Ryan},
abstractNote = {Abstract We examine the dependence of the amplitude of the El Nino‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the mixing coefficient parameterizing the lateral mixing of tracers (A Redi ) The value of this coefficient is very uncertain, ranging in Earth System Models between a few hundred and a few thousand m 2 s −1 , with some observational estimates showing even higher values. A suite of simulations is made with two spatially varying distributions of A Redi derived from satellite observations as well as four simulations where a spatially constant A Redi is varied over a factor of 6. Surprisingly, larger values of A Redi result in stronger ENSO variability despite the higher mixing coefficients producing more efficient lateral diffusive damping of anomalies. This is because lateral mixing also warms the cold tongue, increasing vertical temperature gradients and decreasing horizontal temperature gradients. Larger vertical temperature gradients make sea surface temperatures more responsive to atmospheric forcing, while smaller horizontal temperature gradients shift the location of convection and make the atmosphere more responsive to sea surface temperature anomalies. The last effect holds across simulations as well as within individual simulations and thus also helps to explain interdecadal variability in ENSO amplitude. By contrast, a previously proposed anticorrelation between the amplitude interannual and annual variability does not hold across simulations, although it does hold within simulations. The propagation of thermocline depth anomalies is relatively insensitive to the value of A Redi . Properly specifying the lateral mixing along the equator (including distinguishing the impacts of subgridscale turbulence and tropical instability waves) appears essential to simulating ENSO.},
doi = {10.1002/2017MS000917},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1408245},
journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
issn = {1942-2466},
number = 7,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Fri Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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