Blocking and General Circulation in GFDL Comprehensive Climate Models

Narinesingh, Veeshan; Booth, James F.; Ming, Yi

doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0486.1

i

Blocking and General Circulation in GFDL Comprehensive Climate Models

2022
By Narinesingh, Veeshan ; Booth, James F. ; Ming, Yi

Details

Journal Title:

Journal of Climate
Personal Author:

Narinesingh, Veeshan ; Booth, James F. ; Ming, Yi
NOAA Program & Office:

CESSRST (Cooperative Science Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies) ; OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
Description:

This study examines the climatology and dynamics of atmospheric blocking, and the general circulation features that influence blocks in GFDL’s atmosphere-only (AM4) and coupled atmosphere–ocean (CM4) comprehensive models. We compare AM4 and CM4 with reanalysis, focusing on winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Both models generate the correct blocking climatology and planetary-scale signatures of the stationary wave. However, at regional scales some biases exist. In the eastern Pacific and over western North America, both models generate excessive blocking frequency and too strong of a stationary wave. In the Atlantic, the models generate too little blocking and a weakened stationary wave. A block-centered compositing analysis of block-onset dynamics reveals that the models 1) produce realistic patterns of high-frequency (1–6-day) eddy forcing and 2) capture the notable differences in the 500-hPa geopotential height field between Pacific and Atlantic blocking. However, the models fail to reproduce stronger wave activity flux convergence in the Atlantic compared to the Pacific. Overall, biases in the blocking climatology in terms of location, frequency, duration, and area are quite similar between AM4 and CM4 despite the models having large differences in sea surface temperatures and climatological zonal circulation. This could suggest that other factors could be more dominant in generating blocking biases for these GCMs.
Keywords:

Climatology Mathematical Models Ocean-atmosphere Interaction Mathematical Models Ocean-atmosphere Interaction
Source:

Journal of Climate, 35(12), 3687-3703
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0486.1
Format:

PDF
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA16SEC4810008
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:20a461a26ac6cdff293d57e3b2e1d27a90ad62ca00b66330938ace9dc870a9c2
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/48712/noaa_48712_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 6.15 MB ]

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