AWI-CM3 coupled climate model: Description and evaluation experiments for a prototype post-CMIP6 model

• Main Authors: Streffing, Jan, Sidorenko, Dmitry, Semmler, Tido, Zampieri, Lorenzo, Scholz, Patrick, Andrés-Martínez, Miguel, Koldunov, Nikolay, Rackow, Thomas, Kjellsson, Joakim, Goessling, Helge, Athanase, Marylou, Wang, Qiang, Sein, Dmitry, Mu, Longjiang, Fladrich, Uwe, Barbi, Dirk, Gierz, Paul, Danilov, Sergey, Juricke, Stephan, Lohmann, Gerrit, Jung, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-32; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00060326; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/egusphere-2022-32/egusphere-2022-32.pdf

We developed a new version of the Alfred Wegener Institute Climate Model (AWI-CM3), which has higher skills in representing the observed climatology and better computational efficiency than its predecessors. Its ocean component FESOM2 has the multi-resolution functionality typical for unstructured-mesh models while still featuring a scalability and efficiency similar to regular-grid models. The atmospheric component OpenIFS (CY43R3) enables the use of latest developments in the numerical weather prediction community in climate sciences. In this paper we describe the coupling of the model components and evaluate the model performance on a variable resolution (25–125 km) ocean mesh and a 61 km atmosphere grid, which serves as a reference and starting point for other on-going research activities with AWI-CM3. This includes the exploration of high and variable resolution, the development of a full Earth System Model as well as the creation of a new sea ice prediction system. At this early development stage and with the given coarse to medium resolutions, the model already features above CMIP6-average skills in representing the climatology and competitive model throughput. Finally we identify remaining biases and suggest further improvements to be made to the model.