Huo, Wenjuan , Drews, Annika , Martin, Torge and Wahl, Sebastian (2024) Impacts of North Atlantic Model Biases on Natural Decadal Climate Variability. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129 (4). Art.Nr. e2023JD039778. DOI 10.1029/2023JD039778.

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Abstract

Key Points:
- North Atlantic biases are alleviated by an eddying nested ocean configuration embedded in a global climate model, FOCI-VIKING10
- It is indicated that reduction of the North Atlantic biases could improve the representation of NAO sub-decadal (8 years) variability
- For detecting weak external imprints with limited computational resources, an ensemble with a coarse-resolution model is favorable

Increasing the horizontal resolution of an ocean model is frequently seen as a way to reduce the model biases in the North Atlantic, but we are often limited by computational resources. Here, a two-way nested ocean model configuration (VIKING10) that consists of a high-resolution (1/10°) component and covers the northern North Atlantic, is embedded in a 1/2° ocean grid as part of the global chemistry-climate model, FOCI (called FOCI-VIKING10). This configuration yields a significantly improved path of the North Atlantic current (NAC), which here reduces the North Atlantic cold bias by ∼50%. Compared with the coarse-resolution, non-eddying model, the improved thermal state of upper ocean layers and surface heat fluxes in a historical simulation based on FOCI-VIKING10 are beneficial for simulating the subdecadal North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) variability (i.e., a period of 8 years). A northward drift of the NAO-forced ocean thermal anomalies as seen in observations and the eddying FOCI-VIKING10, provide a lagged ocean feedback to the NAO via changes in the net surface heat flux, leading to the NAO periodicity of 8 years. This lagged feedback and the 8 years variability of the NAO cannot be captured by the non-eddying standard FOCI historical simulation. Furthermore, the argumentative responses of the North Atlantic to the 11-year solar cycle are re-examined in this study. The reported solar-induced NAO-like responses are confirmed in the 9-member ensemble mean based on FOCI but with low robustness among individual members. A lagged NAO-like response is only found in the nested eddying simulation but absent from the non-eddying reference simulation, suggesting North Atlantic biases importantly limit climate model capability to realistically solar imprints in North Atlantic climate.

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