Coupled Climate Model Appraisal a Benchmark for Future Studies

Journal Article · Mon Aug 22 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Eos

OSTI ID:888626

Phillips, T J; AchutaRao, K; Bader, D; Covey, C; Doutriaux, C M; Fiorino, M; Gleckler, P J; Sperber, K R; Taylor, K E

The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) has produced an extensive appraisal of simulations of present-day climate by eleven representative coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models (OAGCMs) which were developed during the period 1995-2002. Because projections of potential future global climate change are derived chiefly from OAGCMs, there is a continuing need to test the credibility of these predictions by evaluating model performance in simulating the historically observed climate. For example, such an evaluation is an integral part of the periodic assessments of climate change that are reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The PCMDI appraisal thus provides a useful benchmark for future studies of this type. The appraisal mainly analyzed multi-decadal simulations of present-day climate by models that employed diverse representations of climate processes for atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and land, as well as different techniques for coupling these components (see Table). The selected models were a subset of those entered in phase 2 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP2, Covey et al. 2003). For these ''CMIP2+ models'', more atmospheric or oceanic variables were provided than the minimum requirements for participation in CMIP2. However, the appraisal only considered those climate variables that were supplied from most of the CMIP2+ models. The appraisal focused on three facets of the simulations of current global climate: (1) secular trends in simulation time series which would be indicative of a problematical ''coupled climate drift''; (2) comparisons of temporally averaged fields of simulated atmospheric and oceanic climate variables with available observational climatologies; and (3) correspondences between simulated and observed modes of climatic variability. Highlights of these climatic aspects manifested by different CMIP2+ simulations are briefly discussed here.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 888626
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JRNL-214778
• Journal Information: Eos, Journal Name: Eos Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 87
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
BENCHMARKS
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
DIAGNOSIS
EVALUATION
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
PERFORMANCE
SIMULATION