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Representing El Niño in coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs: the dominant role of the atmospheric component

Representing El Niño in coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs: the dominant role of the atmospheric component
Representing El Niño in coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs: the dominant role of the atmospheric component
A systematic modular approach to investigate the respective roles of the ocean and atmosphere in setting El Niño characteristics in coupled general circulation models is presented. Several state-of-the-art coupled models sharing either the same atmosphere or the same ocean are compared. Major results include 1) the dominant role of the atmosphere model in setting El Niño characteristics (periodicity and base amplitude) and errors (regularity) and 2) the considerable improvement of simulated El Niño power spectra—toward lower frequency—when the atmosphere resolution is significantly increased. Likely reasons for such behavior are briefly discussed. It is argued that this new modular strategy represents a generic approach to identifying the source of both coupled mechanisms and model error and will provide a methodology for guiding model improvement.
0894-8755
4623-4629
Guilyardi, E.
d8e3cd51-7353-401c-994a-7bee46dc4b6b
Slingo, J.
219e1d59-0fc7-406a-813f-9d748cb18d7e
Cole, J.
2223ec60-016a-4802-9f1b-31e8198ab881
Delecluse, P.
028a6421-1545-4e7d-b0d9-b34987c31486
Gualdi, S.
69033c56-25a2-4ec2-80b6-6ada421fce71
Navarra, A.
70ae1cb8-9289-4be2-81ba-0bb78ae73473
Madec, G.
7e2ec04b-896a-4861-b2d0-b74f39d748c2
Roberts, M.
8841b432-f080-4b49-a9f4-1a1fbaed1a81
Latif, M.
d1729715-2cf5-457f-84a8-75978399e42a
Terray, L.
f3a654a1-7ac8-4d25-853e-692450280dd3
Guilyardi, E.
d8e3cd51-7353-401c-994a-7bee46dc4b6b
Slingo, J.
219e1d59-0fc7-406a-813f-9d748cb18d7e
Cole, J.
2223ec60-016a-4802-9f1b-31e8198ab881
Delecluse, P.
028a6421-1545-4e7d-b0d9-b34987c31486
Gualdi, S.
69033c56-25a2-4ec2-80b6-6ada421fce71
Navarra, A.
70ae1cb8-9289-4be2-81ba-0bb78ae73473
Madec, G.
7e2ec04b-896a-4861-b2d0-b74f39d748c2
Roberts, M.
8841b432-f080-4b49-a9f4-1a1fbaed1a81
Latif, M.
d1729715-2cf5-457f-84a8-75978399e42a
Terray, L.
f3a654a1-7ac8-4d25-853e-692450280dd3

Guilyardi, E., Slingo, J., Cole, J., Delecluse, P., Gualdi, S., Navarra, A., Madec, G., Roberts, M., Latif, M. and Terray, L. (2004) Representing El Niño in coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs: the dominant role of the atmospheric component. Journal of Climate, 17 (24), 4623-4629. (doi:10.1175/JCLI-3260.1).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A systematic modular approach to investigate the respective roles of the ocean and atmosphere in setting El Niño characteristics in coupled general circulation models is presented. Several state-of-the-art coupled models sharing either the same atmosphere or the same ocean are compared. Major results include 1) the dominant role of the atmosphere model in setting El Niño characteristics (periodicity and base amplitude) and errors (regularity) and 2) the considerable improvement of simulated El Niño power spectra—toward lower frequency—when the atmosphere resolution is significantly increased. Likely reasons for such behavior are briefly discussed. It is argued that this new modular strategy represents a generic approach to identifying the source of both coupled mechanisms and model error and will provide a methodology for guiding model improvement.

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Published date: December 2004

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 64804
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/64804
ISSN: 0894-8755
PURE UUID: 587e4954-f609-43d9-918b-187fa379713e

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Date deposited: 15 Jan 2009
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 12:02

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Contributors

Author: E. Guilyardi
Author: J. Slingo
Author: J. Cole
Author: P. Delecluse
Author: S. Gualdi
Author: A. Navarra
Author: G. Madec
Author: M. Roberts
Author: M. Latif
Author: L. Terray

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