Journal
CLIMATE DYNAMICS
Volume 51, Issue 9-10, Pages 3369-3387Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00382-018-4083-9
Keywords
HadGEM3-CG2; Sensitivity experiments; Western boundary currents; Vertical motion; Planetary waves; North Atlantic jet
Categories
Funding
- UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
- UK Met Office
- joint UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy/Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme [GA01101]
- NERC Grant [NE/M005887/1]
- NERC [ncas10008, NE/M005887/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The UK Met Office Unified Model in the Global Coupled 2 (GC2) configuration has a warm bias of up to almost 7K in the Gulf Stream SSTs in the winter season, which is associated with surface heat flux biases and potentially related to biases in the atmospheric circulation. The role of this SST bias is examined with a focus on the tropospheric response by performing three sensitivity experiments. The SST biases are imposed on the atmosphere-only configuration of the model over a small and medium section of the Gulf Stream, and also the wider North Atlantic. Here we show that the dynamical response to this anomalous Gulf Stream heating (and associated shifting and changing SST gradients) is to enhance vertical motion in the transient eddies over the Gulf Stream, rather than balance the heating with a linear dynamical meridional wind or meridional eddy heat transport. Together with the imposed Gulf Stream heating bias, the response affects the troposphere not only locally but also in remote regions of the Northern Hemisphere via a planetary Rossby wave response. The sensitivity experiments partially reproduce some of the differences in the coupled configuration of the model relative to the atmosphere-only configuration and to the ERA-Interim reanalysis. These biases may have implications for the ability of the model to respond correctly to variability or changes in the Gulf Stream. Better global prediction therefore requires particular focus on reducing any large western boundary current SST biases in these regions of high ocean-atmosphere interaction.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available