Seminar Speaker: Assistant Professor, Elizabeth Maroon-University of Wisconsin-Madison

North Atlantic Ocean Biases in Global Models

The North Atlantic Ocean influences weather and climate through its transport of heat, control of the sea surface temperature field, and influence on surface fluxes. Global climate models all share large upper-ocean biases in the North Atlantic, with some of the worst due to poor representation of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current. These biases, which originate in global ocean models, have been shown to affect downstream weather: improving these biases in global models is important for improving climate simulation broadly.  In this talk, I will present results from a comparison of the subpolar North Atlantic across Ocean Model Intercomparison Project simulations. I will focus first on the cold and fresh bias in the North Atlantic Current region, but then show that the North Atlantic Current region state is strongly connected to the state elsewhere in the subpolar North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas. The ocean’s gyres and overturning circulations are also connected: models with a stronger cold and fresh bias in the North Atlantic Current region also tend to have a relatively weak overturning circulation and a relatively strong subpolar gyre. Finally, I will suggest a mechanism involving gyre advection and the Nordic Seas state that may suggest a way forward to improving these strongly persistent ocean biases. 

https://illinois.zoom.us/j/87247933909?pwd=Yg9a5afZrUDAodWJBhap3HvxzMVVeo.1

Meeting ID: 872 4793 3909     Pass Code: 202496