The GFDL Global Ocean and Sea Ice Model OM4.0: Model Description and Simulation Features

Details

• Journal Title:
  Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
• Personal Author:
  Adcroft, Alistair ; Anderson, Whit ; Balaji, V. ; Blanton, Chris ; Bushuk, Mitchell ; Dufour, Carolina O. ; Dunne, John P. ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Hallberg, Robert ; Harrison, Matthew J. ; Held, Isaac M. ; Jansen, Malte F. ; John, Jasmin G. ; Krasting, John P. ; Langenhorst, Amy R. ; Legg, Sonya ; Liang, Zhi ; McHugh, Colleen ; Radhakrishnan, Aparna ; Reichl, Brandon G. ; Rosati, Tony ; Samuels, Bonita L. ; Shao, Andrew ; Stouffer, Ronald ; Winton, Michael ; Wittenberg, Andrew T. ; Xiang, Baoqiang ; Zadeh, Niki ; Zhang, Rong
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
• Description:
  We document the configuration and emergent simulation features from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) OM4.0 ocean/sea ice model. OM4 serves as the ocean/sea ice component for the GFDL climate and Earth system models. It is also used for climate science research and is contributing to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 6 Ocean Model Intercomparison Project. The ocean component of OM4 uses version 6 of the Modular Ocean Model and the sea ice component uses version 2 of the Sea Ice Simulator, which have identical horizontal grid layouts (Arakawa C‐grid). We follow the Coordinated Ocean‐sea ice Reference Experiments protocol to assess simulation quality across a broad suite of climate‐relevant features. We present results from two versions differing by horizontal grid spacing and physical parameterizations: OM4p5 has nominal 0.5° spacing and includes mesoscale eddy parameterizations and OM4p25 has nominal 0.25° spacing with no mesoscale eddy parameterization. Modular Ocean Model version 6 makes use of a vertical Lagrangian‐remap algorithm that enables general vertical coordinates. We show that use of a hybrid depth‐isopycnal coordinate reduces the middepth ocean warming drift commonly found in pure z* vertical coordinate ocean models. To test the need for the mesoscale eddy parameterization used in OM4p5, we examine the results from a simulation that removes the eddy parameterization. The water mass structure and model drift are physically degraded relative to OM4p5, thus supporting the key role for a mesoscale closure at this resolution.
• Keywords:
  Environmental Chemistry General Earth And Planetary Sciences Global And Planetary Change General Earth And Planetary Sciences Global And Planetary Change General Earth And Planetary Sciences Global And Planetary Change
• Source:
  Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11(10), 3167-3211
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ms001726
• ISSN:
  1942-2466 ; 1942-2466
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA14OAR4320106
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:d4f054ab57465345b1c53203b6c91e6793e5f58c10d6e91c1fb7c4f736dee468
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/57987/noaa_57987_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 88.28 MB ]