Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content
Atmosphere and ocean are coupled via air-sea interactions. The atmospheric conditions fuel the ocean circulation and its variability, but the extent to which ocean processes can affect the atmosphere at decadal time scales remains unclear. In particular, such low-frequency variability is difficult t...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2012.08025 2023-05-15T18:18:44+02:00 Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content Constantinou, Navid C. Hogg, Andrew McC. 2020 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2012.08025 https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.08025 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-20-0962.1 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2020 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2012.08025 https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-20-0962.1 2022-03-10T15:21:40Z Atmosphere and ocean are coupled via air-sea interactions. The atmospheric conditions fuel the ocean circulation and its variability, but the extent to which ocean processes can affect the atmosphere at decadal time scales remains unclear. In particular, such low-frequency variability is difficult to extract from the short observational record, meaning that climate models are the primary tools deployed to resolve this question. Here, we assess how the ocean's intrinsic variability leads to patterns of upper-ocean heat content that vary at decadal time scales. These patterns have the potential to feed back on the atmosphere and thereby affect climate modes of variability, such as El Niño or the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. We use the output from a global ocean-sea ice circulation model at three different horizontal resolutions, each driven by the same atmospheric reanalysis. To disentangle the variability of the ocean's direct response to atmospheric forcing from the variability due to intrinsic ocean dynamics, we compare model runs driven with inter-annually varying forcing (1958-2018) and model runs driven with repeat-year forcing. Models with coarse resolution that rely on eddy parameterizations, show (i) significantly reduced variance of the upper-ocean heat content at decadal time scales and (ii) differences in the spatial patterns of low-frequency variability compared with higher resolution models. Climate projections are typically done with general circulation models with coarse-resolution ocean components. Therefore, these biases affect our ability to predict decadal climate modes of variability and, in turn, hinder climate projections. Our results suggest that for improving climate projections, the community should move towards coupled climate models with higher oceanic resolution. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Pacific |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
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Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences Constantinou, Navid C. Hogg, Andrew McC. Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Atmosphere and ocean are coupled via air-sea interactions. The atmospheric conditions fuel the ocean circulation and its variability, but the extent to which ocean processes can affect the atmosphere at decadal time scales remains unclear. In particular, such low-frequency variability is difficult to extract from the short observational record, meaning that climate models are the primary tools deployed to resolve this question. Here, we assess how the ocean's intrinsic variability leads to patterns of upper-ocean heat content that vary at decadal time scales. These patterns have the potential to feed back on the atmosphere and thereby affect climate modes of variability, such as El Niño or the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. We use the output from a global ocean-sea ice circulation model at three different horizontal resolutions, each driven by the same atmospheric reanalysis. To disentangle the variability of the ocean's direct response to atmospheric forcing from the variability due to intrinsic ocean dynamics, we compare model runs driven with inter-annually varying forcing (1958-2018) and model runs driven with repeat-year forcing. Models with coarse resolution that rely on eddy parameterizations, show (i) significantly reduced variance of the upper-ocean heat content at decadal time scales and (ii) differences in the spatial patterns of low-frequency variability compared with higher resolution models. Climate projections are typically done with general circulation models with coarse-resolution ocean components. Therefore, these biases affect our ability to predict decadal climate modes of variability and, in turn, hinder climate projections. Our results suggest that for improving climate projections, the community should move towards coupled climate models with higher oceanic resolution. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Constantinou, Navid C. Hogg, Andrew McC. |
author_facet |
Constantinou, Navid C. Hogg, Andrew McC. |
author_sort |
Constantinou, Navid C. |
title |
Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
title_short |
Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
title_full |
Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
title_fullStr |
Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
title_full_unstemmed |
Intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
title_sort |
intrinsic oceanic decadal variability of upper-ocean heat content |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2012.08025 https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.08025 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-20-0962.1 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2012.08025 https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-20-0962.1 |
_version_ |
1766195431470006272 |