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Title: A Partial Coupling Method to Isolate the Roles of the Atmosphere and Ocean in Coupled Climate Simulations

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ms002016· OSTI ID:1682240
ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
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This study describes the formulation and application of a partial coupling method that disentangles the coupling between the atmosphere and ocean and isolates the atmosphere- and ocean-driven components of the coupled climate interactions. In contrast to strategies using stand-alone simulations with prescribed atmosphere or ocean states, the climate components in the partially coupled method remain coupled, but the impact of ocean circulation changes is removed from the air-sea interaction using temperature-like tracers. The partially coupled simulation thereby suppresses the ocean-driven interaction and isolates an atmosphere-driven interaction only. The ocean-driven component can be inferred by comparing climate response in the partially coupled simulation with that of a standard fully coupled one. The partial coupling approach is applied to decompose the fully coupled climate response to CO2 quadrupling into atmosphere- and ocean-driven components. The linearity of the decomposition is validated by simulating the ocean-driven response using another complimentary partially coupled simulation forced only with the atmosphere-driven anomalous surface fluxes. A comparison of the two partially coupled simulations with the fully coupled simulation indicates that the sum of the atmosphere- and ocean-driven components accurately describes the fully coupled response. The decomposition identifies several robust atmosphere- and ocean-driven features of the global warming and provides new insights into the impacts of atmospheric feedbacks on the Atlantic overturning circulation and sea ice response to CO2 increase.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; AC02‐05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1682240
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-150270
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 12, Issue 9; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Figures / Tables (3)

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