North Atlantic simulations in Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiments phase II (CORE-II). Part II: Inter-annual to decadal variability

• Published in: Ocean Modelling
• Main Authors: Danabasoglu, Gokhan, Yeager, Steve G., Kim, Who M., Behrens, Erik, Bentsen, Mats, Bi, Daohua, Biastoch, Arne, Bleck, Rainer, Böning, Claus W., Bozec, Alexandra, Canuto, Vittorio M., Cassou, Christophe, Chassignet, Eric P., Coward, Andrew C., Danilov, Sergey, Diansky, Nikolay, Drange, Helge, Farneti, Riccardo, Fernandez, Élodie, Fogli, Pier Giuseppe, Forget, Gael, Fujii, Yosuke, Griffies, Stephen M., Gusev, Anatoly, Heimbach, Patrick, Howard, Armando, Ilicak, Mehmet, Jung, Thomas, Karspeck, Alicia R., Kelley, Maxwell, Large, William G., Leboissetier, Anthony, Lu, Jianhua, Madec, Gurvan, Marsland, Simon J., Masina, Simona, Navarra, Antonio, Nurser, A. J. George, Pirani, Anna, Romanou, Anastasia, Salas y Mélia, David, Samuels, Bonita L., Scheinert, Markus, Sidorenko, Dmitry, Sun, Shan, Treguier, Anne-Marie, Tsujino, Hiroyuki, Uotila, Petteri, Valcke, Sophie, Voldoire, Aurore, Wang, Qiang, Yashayaev, Igor
• Other Authors: National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder (NCAR), Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), Uni Research Climate, Uni Research Ltd, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Florida State University Tallahassee (FSU), Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS), National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Institute of Numerical Mathematics Moscou (INM-RAS), Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), University of Bergen (UiB), Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste (ICTP), Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici Bologna (CMCC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Meteorological Research Institute Tsukuba (MRI), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO R&D ), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica Perugia (DMI), Università degli Studi di Perugia = University of Perugia (UNIPG), National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOC), University of Southampton, International CLIVAR, Princeton University, Centre national de recherches météorologiques (CNRM), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften (IFM-GEOMAR), Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Biomedical Research Imaging Center North Carolina (BRIC), University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC), University of North Carolina System (UNC)-University of North Carolina System (UNC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Variability in the North Atlantic; Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability; Atmospheric forcing; Global ocean – sea-ice modelling; Ocean model comparisons; Inter-annual to decadal variability and mechanisms; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01491382; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2015.11.007

International audience Simulated inter-annual to decadal variability and trends in the North Atlantic for the 1958–2007 period from twenty global ocean – sea-ice coupled models are presented. These simulations are performed as contributions to the second phase of the Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiments (CORE-II). The study is Part II of our companion paper (Danabasoglu et al., 2014) which documented the mean states in the North Atlantic from the same models. A major focus of the present study is the representation of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variability in the participating models. Relationships between AMOC variability and those of some other related variables, such as subpolar mixed layer depths, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the Labrador Sea upper-ocean hydrographic properties, are also investigated. In general, AMOC variability shows three distinct stages. During the first stage that lasts until the mid- to late-1970s, AMOC is relatively steady, remaining lower than its long-term (1958–2007) mean. Thereafter, AMOC intensifies with maximum transports achieved in the mid- to late-1990s. This enhancement is then followed by a weakening trend until the end of our integration period. This sequence of low frequency AMOC variability is consistent with previous studies. Regarding strengthening of AMOC between about the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, our results support a previously identified variability mechanism where AMOC intensification is connected to increased deep water formation in the subpolar North Atlantic, driven by NAO-related surface fluxes. The simulations tend to show general agreement in their temporal representations of, for example, AMOC, sea surface temperature (SST), and subpolar mixed layer depth variabilities. In particular, the observed variability of the North Atlantic SSTs is captured well by all models. These findings indicate that simulated variability and trends are primarily dictated by the atmospheric datasets which include the influence of ...