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Challenges and Prospects for Reducing Coupled Climate Model SST Biases in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: The U.S. CLIVAR Eastern Tropical Oceans Synthesis Working Group

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [3];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [1];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [5];  [15];  [13]
  1. Univ. of Miami, FL (United States)
  2. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Ocean Univ. of China, Qingdao (China). Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology
  3. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  5. George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States)
  6. Univ. of Bergen (Norway)
  7. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama (Japan)
  8. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  9. GEOMAR, Kiel (Germany)
  10. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  11. Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Falmouth, MA (United States)
  12. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
  13. Ocean Univ. of China, Qingdao (China)
  14. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  15. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Well-known problems trouble coupled general circulation models of the eastern Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. Model climates are significantly more symmetric about the equator than is observed. Model sea surface temperatures are biased warm south and southeast of the equator, and the atmosphere is too rainy within a band south of the equator. Near-coastal eastern equatorial SSTs are too warm, producing a zonal SST gradient in the Atlantic opposite in sign to that observed. The U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program (CLIVAR) Eastern Tropical Ocean Synthesis Working Group (WG) has pursued here an updated assessment of coupled model SST biases, focusing on the surface energy balance components, on regional error sources from clouds, deep convection, winds, and ocean eddies; on the sensitivity to model resolution; and on remote impacts. Motivated by the assessment, the WG makes the following recommendations: 1) encourage identification of the specific parameterizations contributing to the biases in individual models, as these can be model dependent; 2) restrict multimodel intercomparisons to specific processes; 3) encourage development of high-resolution coupled models with a concurrent emphasis on parameterization development of finer-scale ocean and atmosphere features, including low clouds; 4) encourage further availability of all surface flux components from buoys, for longer continuous time periods, in persistently cloudy regions; and 5) focus on the eastern basin coastal oceanic upwelling regions, where further opportunities for observational–modeling synergism exist.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
European Union (EU); Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (United States); National Basic Research Priorities Programme (China); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF) (United States); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
FC02-97ER62402
OSTI ID:
1480752
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 97; ISSN 0003-0007
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (24)

Can reducing the incoming energy flux over the Southern Ocean in a CGCM improve its simulation of tropical climate?: Southern Ocean-Tropics Link in a CGCM journal October 2016
An Argo‐Derived Background Diffusivity Parameterization for Improved Ocean Simulations in the Tropical Pacific journal February 2018
The Ascension Island Boundary Layer in the Remote Southeast Atlantic is Often Smoky journal May 2018
Tropical Cyclone Activity in the High‐Resolution Community Earth System Model and the Impact of Ocean Coupling journal January 2018
Equatorial Atlantic variability-Modes, mechanisms, and global teleconnections
  • Lübbecke, Joke F.; Rodríguez-Fonseca, Belen; Richter, Ingo
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol. 9, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.527
journal May 2018
Importance of positive cloud feedback for tropical Atlantic interhemispheric climate variability journal October 2017
The impact of climate model sea surface temperature biases on tropical cyclone simulations journal December 2018
Role of wind stress in driving SST biases in the Tropical Atlantic journal March 2019
Fast SST error growth in the southeast Pacific Ocean: comparison between high and low-resolution CCSM4 retrospective forecasts journal June 2019
Contributions of atmospheric and oceanic feedbacks to subtropical northeastern sea surface temperature variability journal September 2019
PIRATA: A Sustained Observing System for Tropical Atlantic Climate Research and Forecasting journal April 2019
Revisiting the CMIP5 Thermocline in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans journal December 2018
Seasonal Mixed Layer Temperature Balance in the Southeastern Tropical Atlantic journal August 2018
A Modeling Strategy for the Investigation of the Effect of Mesoscale SST Variability on Atmospheric Dynamics journal April 2019
Evaluation of CMIP6 DECK Experiments With CNRM‐CM6‐1 journal July 2019
The Tropical Atlantic Observing System journal May 2019
Integrated Observations of Global Surface Winds, Currents, and Waves: Requirements and Challenges for the Next Decade journal July 2019
Tropical Atlantic Variability: Observations and Modeling journal August 2019
Coupling Ocean Currents and Waves with Wind Stress over the Gulf Stream journal June 2019
The diurnal cycle of the smoky marine boundary layer observed during August in the remote southeast Atlantic journal January 2019
Ultra-clean and smoky marine boundary layers frequently occur in the same season over the southeast Atlantic journal January 2020
Ultra-clean and smoky marine boundary layers frequently occur in the same season over the southeast Atlantic journal July 2019
High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP v1.0) for CMIP6 journal January 2016
Frontogenesis of the Angola–Benguela Frontal Zone journal January 2019

Figures / Tables (15)

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