The Pacific-Indian Ocean Associated Mode in CMIP5 Models

• Main Authors: Yang, Minghao, Li, Xin, Shi, Weilai, Zhang, Chao, Zhang, Jianqi
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Indian; Pacific; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2019-30; https://www.ocean-sci-discuss.net/os-2019-30/

The Pacific-Indian Ocean associated mode (PIOAM) is the product of the tropical air-sea interaction at the cross-basin scale and the main mode of ocean variation in the tropics. Evaluating the capability of current climate models to simulate the PIOAM and finding the possible factors that affect the simulation results are beneficial to obtain more accurate future climate change prediction. Based on 55-yr the Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST) reanalysis and the output data from twenty-one Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 (CMIP5) models, the PIOAM in these CMIP5 models is assessed. It is found that the explained variance of PIOAM in almost all twenty-one CMIP5 models are underestimated. Although all models reproduce the spatial pattern of the positive sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern equatorial Pacific well, only one-third of these models successfully simulate the ENSO mode with the east-west inverse phase in the Pacific Ocean. In general, CCSM4, GFDL-ESM2M and CMCC-CMS have a stronger capability to capture the PIOAM than that of the other models. The strengths of the PIOAM in the positive phase in less than one-fifth of the models are slightly stronger, and very close to HadISST reanalysis, especially in CCSM4. The interannual variation of PIOAM can be measured by CCSM4, GISS-E2-R and FGOALS-s2. Further analysis indicates that considering the carbon cycle, resolving stratosphere, chemical process or increasing the horizontal resolution of the atmospheric model may effectively improve the performance of the model to simulate the PIOAM.