Growing interfacially coupled oscillations of the ocean–atmosphere

A stability analysis of the coupled ocean–atmosphere is presented which shows that the potential energy (PE) of the upper layer of the ocean is available to generate coupled growing planetary waves. An independent analysis suggests that the growth of these waves would be maintained in the presence of oceanic friction. The growing waves are a consequence of relaxing the rigid lid approximation on the ocean, thus allowing an upward transfer of energy across the sea surface. Using a two and a half layer model consisting of an atmospheric planetary boundary layer, coupled with a two layer ocean comprising an active upper layer and a lower layer in which the velocity perturbation is vanishingly small, it is shown that coupled unstable waves are generated, which extract PE from the main thermocline. The instability analysis is an extension of earlier work [Tellus 44A (1992) 67], which considered the coupled instability of an atmospheric planetary boundary layer coupled with an oceanic mixed layer, in which unstable waves were generated which extract PE from the seasonal thermocline. The unstable wave is an atmospheric divergent barotropic Rossby wave, which is steered by the zonal wind velocity, and has a wavelength of about 6000 km, and propagates eastward at the speed of the deep ocean current. It is argued that this instability, which has a multidecadal growth time constant, may be generated in the Southern Ocean, and that its properties are similar to observations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW).     

The role of ocean dynamics in producing decadal climate variability in the North Pacific

 Decadal time scale climate variability in the North Pacific has implications for climate both locally and over North America. A crucial question is the degree to which this variability arises from coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions over the North Pacific that involve ocean dynamics, as opposed to either purely thermodynamic effects of the oceanic mixed layer integrating in situ the stochastic atmospheric forcing, or the teleconnected response to tropical variability. The part of the variability that is coming from local coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions involving ocean dynamics is potentially predictable by an ocean/atmosphere general circulation model (O/A GCM), and such predictions could (depending on the achievable lead time) have distinct societal benefits. This question is examined using the results of fully coupled O/A GCMs, as well as targeted numerical experiments with stand-alone ocean and atmosphere models individually. It is found that coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions that involve ocean dynamics are important to determining the strength and frequency of a decadal-time scale peak in the spectra of several oceanic variables in the Kuroshio extension region off Japan. Local stochastic atmospheric heat flux forcing, integrated by the oceanic mixed layer into a red spectrum, provides a noise background from which the signal must be extracted. Although teleconnected ENSO responses influence the North Pacific in the 2–7 years/cycle frequency band, it is shown that some decadal-time scale processes in the North Pacific proceed without ENSO. Likewise, although the effects of stochastic atmospheric forcing on ocean dynamics are discernible, a feedback path from the ocean to the atmosphere is suggested by the results. Received: 23 January 2000 / Accepted: 10 January 2001     

Decadal change of the south Atlantic ocean Angola–Benguela frontal zone since 1980

Climate Dynamics - High-resolution simulations with a regional atmospheric model coupled to an intermediate-level mixed layer ocean model along with multiple atmospheric and oceanic reanalyses are...     

A highly nonlinear coupled mode of decadal variability in a mid-latitude ocean–atmosphere model

This study examines mid-latitude climate variability in a model that couples turbulent oceanic and atmospheric flows through an active oceanic mixed layer. Intrinsic ocean dynamics of the inertial recirculation regions combines with nonlinear atmospheric sensitivity to sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies to play a dominant role in the variability of the coupled system.Intrinsic low-frequency variability arises in the model atmosphere; when run in a stand-alone mode, it is characterized by irregular transitions between preferred high-latitude and less frequent low-latitude zonal-flow states. When the atmosphere is coupled to the ocean, the low-latitude state occurrences exhibit a statistically significant signal in a broad 5–15-year band. A similar signal is found in the time series of the model ocean's energy in this coupled simulation. Accompanying uncoupled ocean-only and atmosphere-only integrations are characterized by a decrease in the decadal-band variability, relative to the coupled integration; their spectra are indistinguishable from a red spectrum.The time scale of the coupled interdecadal oscillation is set by the nonlinear adjustment of the ocean's inertial recirculations to the high-latitude and low-latitude atmospheric forcing regimes. This adjustment involves, in turn, SST changes resulting in long-term ocean–atmosphere heat-flux anomalies that induce the atmospheric regime transitions.     

Sensitivity of the thermohaline circulation in coupled oceanic GCM — atmospheric EBM experiments

We analyze the sensitivity of the oceanic thermohaline circulation (THC) regarding perturbations in fresh water flux for a range of coupled oceanic general circulation — atmospheric energy balance models. The energy balance model (EBM) predicts surface air temperature and fresh water flux and contains the feedbacks due to meridional transports of sensible and latent heat. In the coupled system we examine a negative perturbation in run-off into the southern ocean and analyze the role of changed atmospheric heat transports and fresh water flux. With mixed boundary conditions (fixed air temperature and fixed surface fresh water fluxes) the response is characterized by a completely different oceanic heat transport than in the reference case. On the other hand, the surface heat flux remains roughly constant when the air temperature can adjust in a model where no anomalous atmospheric transports are allowed. This gives an artificially stable system with nearly unchanged oceanic heat transport. However, if meridional heat transports in the atmosphere are included, the sensitivity of the system lies between the two extreme cases. We find that changes in fresh water flux are unimportant for the THC in the coupled system.     

Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model

Synoptic atmospheric eddies are affected by lower tropospheric air-temperature gradients and by turbulent heat fluxes from the surface. In this study we examine how ocean fronts affect these quantities and hence the storm tracks. We focus on two midlatitude regions where ocean fronts lie close to the storm tracks: the north-west Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. An atmospheric climate model of reasonably high resolution (~50 km) is applied in a climate-length (60 year) simulation in order to obtain stable statistics. Simulations with frontal structure in the sea surface temperature (SST) in one of the regions are compared against simulations with globally smoothed SST. We show that in both regions the ocean fronts have a strong influence on the transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes, not just in the boundary layer, but also in the free troposphere. Local differences in these quantities between the simulations reach 20–40 % of the maximum values in the simulation with smoothed SST. Averaged over the entire region of the storm track over the ocean the corresponding differences are 10–20 %. The effect on the transient eddy meridional wind variance is strong in the boundary layer but relatively weak above that. The potential mechanisms by which the ocean fronts influence the storm tracks are discussed, and our results are compared against previous studies with regional models, Aquaplanet models, and coarse resolution coupled models.     

Importance of oceanic resolution and mean state on the extra-tropical response to El Niño in a matrix of coupled models

The extra-tropical response to El Niño in configurations of a coupled model with increased horizontal resolution in the oceanic component is shown to be more realistic than in configurations with a low resolution oceanic component. This general conclusion is independent of the atmospheric resolution. Resolving small-scale processes in the ocean produces a more realistic oceanic mean state, with a reduced cold tongue bias, which in turn allows the atmospheric model component to be forced more realistically. A realistic atmospheric basic state is critical in order to represent Rossby wave propagation in response to El Niño, and hence the extra-tropical response to El Niño. Through the use of high and low resolution configurations of the forced atmospheric-only model component we show that, in isolation, atmospheric resolution does not significantly affect the simulation of the extra-tropical response to El Niño. It is demonstrated, through perturbations to the SST forcing of the atmospheric model component, that biases in the climatological SST field typical of coupled model configurations with low oceanic resolution can account for the erroneous atmospheric basic state seen in these coupled model configurations. These results highlight the importance of resolving small-scale oceanic processes in producing a realistic large-scale mean climate in coupled models, and suggest that it might may be possible to “squeeze out” valuable extra performance from coupled models through increases to oceanic resolution alone.     

Simulation of the Indian monsoon using the RegCM3–ROMS regional coupled model

A regional coupled atmosphere–ocean model was developed to study the role of air–sea interactions in the simulation of the Indian summer monsoon. The coupled model includes the regional climate model (RegCM3) as atmospheric component and the regional ocean modeling system (ROMS) as oceanic component. The two-way coupled model system exchanges sea surface temperature (SST) from the ocean to the atmospheric model and surface wind stress and energy fluxes from the atmosphere to the ocean model. The coupled model is run for four years 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the results are compared with observations and atmosphere-only model runs employing Reynolds SSTs as lower boundary condition. It is found that the coupled model captures the main features of the Indian monsoon and simulates a substantially more realistic spatial and temporal distribution of monsoon rainfall compared to the uncoupled atmosphere-only model. The intraseasonal oscillations are also better simulated in the coupled model compared to the atmosphere-only model. These improvements are due to a better representation of the feedbacks between the SST and convection and highlight the importance of air–sea coupling in the simulation of the Indian monsoon.     

A simulation of sea‐ice motion and distribution off Newfoundland during LIMEX,March 1987

Abstract

A coupled ice‐ocean dynamical model is applied to the simulation of sea‐ice motion and distribution off Newfoundland during the Labrador Ice Margin Experiment (LIMEX), March 1987. In the model, the ice is coupled to a barotropic ocean through an Ekman layer that deepens with increasing wind speed. A 6‐hourly gridded wind dataset was used as input to drive the ice and the ocean. The results show that ice velocities with ice‐ocean coupling are appreciably higher than those without coupling because of the generation of wind‐driven coastal currents. This suggests that coupled ice‐ocean dynamics should always be considered in short‐term sea‐ice models. The model gives reasonable agreement with the observed ice edge except in the southern boundary where ice‐melt has a strong influence on the ice‐edge position. Ocean currents, sea level and ice velocities computed from the model are in qualitative agreement with limited current‐meter, tide‐gauge, and ice drifter trajectory data.     

简单的热带海气耦合波——Rossby波的相互作用

在本文中分析了当大气和海洋中未经耦合前的自由波均为Rossby模时,经相互作用后所激发出的耦合波的物理性质。结果表明,由于大气和海洋的背景状态不同,可以激发出两类不稳定耦合Rossby波。一类波要求大气的背景场是斜压的,而海洋的混合层较深,即热容量较大。这是一类弱相互作用的不稳定波。另一类要求大气的背景场趋于正压性,而海洋的混合层较浅,即热容量较小。这是一类强相互作用的不稳定波。色散关系的计算表明,这两类不稳定波产生的物理机制也不相同。文中对解不同截断模的本征值问题提出了几种数学方法,同时还进一步提出了一种使大气和海洋自由Rossby模的色散关系不受歪曲的处理方法。     

A numerical study of the influence of an air temperature-inversion layer and a seawater density-jump layer on the structure of interacting boundary layers

The effects of an air-temperature inversion in the atmosphere and a seawater density jump in the ocean on the structure of the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers are studied by use of a coupled model. The numerical model consists of a closed system of equations for velocities, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent exchange coefficient, local turbulent length scale, and stratification expressions for both air and sea boundary layers. The effects of the temperature inversion and the density jump are incorporated into the equations of turbulent kinetic energy of the atmosphere and ocean by a parameterization. A series of numerical experiments was conducted to determine the effects of various strengths of the inversion layer and surface heat fluxes in the atmosphere and of the density-jump layer in the ocean on the structure of the interacting boundary layers.The numerical results show that the temperature inversion in the atmosphere and density jump in the ocean have strong influences on turbulent structure [especially on the turbulent exchange coefficient (TEC) and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)] and on air-sea interaction characteristics. Maxima of TKE and TEC strongly decrease with increasing strength of the inversion layer, and they disappear for strong inversions in the atmosphere. Certain strengths (density differences between the upper and the lower layers) of the density-jump layer in the ocean (₂ 0.1 g/cm³) produce double maxima in TEC-profiles and TKE-profiles in the ocean. The magnitudes of air-sea interaction characteristics such as geostrophic drag coefficient, and surface drift current increase with increasing strength of the density-jump layer in the ocean. The density-jump layer plays the role of a barrier that limits vertical mixing in the ocean. The numerical results agree well with available observed data and accepted quantitive understanding of the influences of a temperature inversion layer and a density-jump layer on the interacting atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers.     

Argo大洋观测资料的同化及其在短期气候预测和海洋分析中的应用

国际Argo(Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography)计划的实施,提供了前所未有的全球深海大洋0～2000 m水深范围内的海水温度和盐度观测资料,在大气和海洋科研业务中应用这一全新的资料,是深入认识大气和海洋变异、提高我国气候预测、海洋监测分析和预报能力的一个关键所在.通过开发非线性温—盐协调同化方案和利用同化高度计资料来调整模式的温度和盐度场,建立了可同化包括Argo等多种海洋观测资料的全球海洋资料变分同化系统,提高了对全球海洋的监测分析能力.实现了海洋资料同化系统与全球海气耦合模式的耦合,显著提高了短期气候预测水平.利用Argo资料改进了海洋动力模式中的物理过程参数化方案,有效提高了海洋模式对真实大洋的模拟能力和对厄尔尼诺/拉尼娜的预测能力.开发了利用Argo浮标漂流轨迹推算全球海洋表层和中层流的方法,提高了推算的全球表层流、中层流资料质量,有效弥补了洋流观测的匮乏.     

Midlatitude ocean–atmosphere interaction in an idealized coupled model

Interannual-to-interdecadal ocean-atmosphere interaction in midlatitudes is studied using an idealized coupled model consisting of eddy resolving two-layer quasi-geostrophic oceanic and atmospheric components with a simple diagnostic oceanic mixed layer. The model solutions exhibit structure and variability that resemble qualitatively some aspects of the observed climate variability over the North Atlantic. The atmospheric climatology is characterized by a zonally modulated jet. The single-basin ocean climatology consists of a midlatitude double jet that represents the Gulf Stream and Labrador currents, which are parts of the subtropical and subpolar gyres, respectively. The leading mode of the atmospheric low-frequency variability consists predominantly of meridional displacements of the zonal jet, with a local maximum over the ocean. The first basin-scale mode of sea-surface temperature has a red power spectrum, is largely of one polarity and bears qualitative similarities with the observed interdecadal mode identified by Kushnir. A warm sea-surface temperature anomaly is accompanied by anomalously low atmospheric pressure, an intensified model Gulf Stream and a weakened Labrador current. This mode is found not to be affected significantly by oceanic coupling. In the western part of the basin, this sea-surface temperature pattern is shown to be forced by the slowest components of the surface-wind anomaly through a delayed modulation of the baroclinic time-dependent boundary currents which advect mean SST, with synchronous variations in the two oceanic jets. The response in the east is found to be dominated by local atmospheric forcing. Basin-scale intrinsic oceanic variability consists of a damped oceanic oscillatory mode in the baroclinic flow field that is excited by the atmospheric noise. Its period is around 5.5 years, but it has a negligible influence on the evolution of sea-surface temperature. Important for this mode's excitation is the meridional position of the atmospheric center of action relative to the ocean gyres.     

Parameter sensitivity of a coupled atmosphere-ocean model

 The sensitivity of a coupled model to the oceanic vertical diffusion coefficient κ _v is examined. This is compared to the sensitivity of an ocean-only model forced by mixed boundary conditions (BC). The atmospheric component of the coupled model is a moist energy balance model. The ocean component is a 12-level geostrophic model, defined on a midlatitude β-plane. Atmosphere and ocean are coupled through the fluxes of heat and moisture at their interface. The coupled model contains a number of feedback processes which are not represented in the ocean-only model. This results in a temperature and salinity response to κ _v which is stronger in the coupled model than in the ocean-only model. On the other hand, there is a weaker response in oceanic processes such as meridional heat transport, deep-water formation at high latitudes, etc. Ocean-only sensitivity experiments were also performed with modified BCs, which parametrise the feedback processes included in the coupled model. These are the modified thermal BC of Rahmstorf and Willebrand and a modified freshwater BC proposed in the present study. Large-scale features of the response in oceanic surface fields are well represented with modified BCs. However, the sensitivity of the deep ocean temperature is only partly captured due to local differences in the surface response. The scaling behavior of the zonal overturning stream function was found to depend on the surface BCs. In contrast to this, the meridional overturning stream function basically scales with κ^0.5 _v in all sensitivity experiments. Differences in the heat transport response among the experiments are thus primarily related to differences in the temperature response. Received: 28 February 1997/Accepted: 12 September 1997     

一个海气耦合环流模式中的ENSO循环特征及控制机理

本文利用中科院大气所两层全球大气环流模式和十四层热带太平洋模式的耦合环流模式１００年积分中的后３０年的月平均输出资料,通过分析海表面温度、上层海洋热容量和海表面高度异常的年际变化,揭示了模式ＥＮＳＯ循环（包括其产生、发展、成熟和消亡过程）的特征及其控制机理。结果表明,控制本文耦合环流模式中ＥＮＳＯ循环的机理是“时滞振子”模态,这和由中间复杂程度耦合模式得到的ＥＮＳＯ控制机理是一致的。反映了“时滞振     

A coupled surface boundary-layer-quasigeostrophic model

A three-dimensional model of the mesoscale surface boundary layer of the open ocean is developed through scale analysis of the primitive equations with mixing included. A set of surface boundary-layer equations appropriate for a broad range of oceanic and atmospheric scales is thereby derived. The essential basis of the model is a coupling between quasigeostrophic dynamics away from the boundary layer and arbitrary mixing models within the mixed layer. The coupling consists of advection of the boundary layer by the horizontal and vertical components of the interior quasigeostrophic flow and forcing of the interior by the boundary layer in the form of divergence within the boundary layer which leads to vortex stretching/compression in the interior. The divergence is generalized for mesoscale wind-driven flows and includes nonlinear interaction between the directly wind-driven boundary-layer flow and the interior flow in the form of interior relative vorticity advection by the wind-driven flow. The nature of the equations leads us to apply a numerical algorithm to their solution. This algorithm is calibrated through application to idealized problems to determine the temporal and spatial grid requirements. The model is initialized with a realistic ocean flow having the properties of the Gulf Stream.     

The birth and evolution of an eastward propagating air-sea coupled disturbance in an aqua-planet

Summary The birth and evolution of an air-sea coupled disturbance relevant to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events is investigated using a simple coupled aqua-planet model composed of the Gill's moist atmosphere and the Anderson-McCreary ocean. A coherent air-sea coupled disturbance with the zonal wavenumber 1 emerges from different initial disturbances either in the atmosphere or the ocean and propagates eastward as observed in the 1982/83 event. In the case of an initial westerly wind burst, oceanic Kelvin waves generated by the winds cause weak but long-lasting ocean temporature anomalies which trigger the air-sea coupled disturbance. When the initial disturbance is in the oceanic mixedlayer temperature, the coupled disturbance is excited more easily because the oceanic relaxation time is long compared to the atmospheric one. This is consistent with the result that the coupled disturbance collapses when the disturbance is forced to vanish on the oceanic side rather than on the atmospheric side.With 8 Figures     

Meridional oscillations in an idealized ocean-atmosphere system,Part I: uncoupled modes

Meridional, linear, and free modes of global, primitive-equation, ocean-atmosphere models were analyzed to see if they contain multi-year, especially decadal ( 10–30 years), oscillation time scale modes. A two-layer model of the global ocean and a two-level model of the global atmosphere were formulated. Both models were linearized around axially-symmetric basic states containing mean meridional circulations. The linearized perturbation system was solved as an eigenvalue problem. The operator matrix was discretized in the north-south direction with centered finite differences. Uncoupled, meridional modes of oscillation of the ocean and the atmosphere models were calculated. Calculations were performed at three grid spacings (5°, 2.5° and 1.25°) and for two types of basic states (symmetric and asymmetric). Uncoupled, free oceanic modes in the presence of mean meridional circulations have oscillation time scales ranging from two years to several centuries. Such low frequency meridional modes do not exist in the ocean model if there are no mean meridional circulations. A large number of oceanic modes are grouped around decadal oscillation time scales. All the oceanic modes have neutral growth rates. The spatial structures of some of the oceanic modes are comparable to observed spatial structures of sea surface temperature variations in the Pacific Ocean. Most years to decades variability of meridional modes of the ocean model is contained in tropical and midlatitude modes. Some oceanic modes with years to decades periods have standing oscillations in the tropics and poleward propagation of zonal velocity and layer thickness outside the tropics. Uncoupled, free atmospheric modes in the presence of mean meridional circulations have oscillation time scales ranging from a week to several decades. Such low-frequency meridional modes do not exist in the atmospere model if there are no mean meridional circulations. A large number of modes are grouped around intraseasonal time scales. Unlike the oceanic modes, the atmospheric modes are weakly unstable. Most of the intraseasonal variability of atmospheric modes is contained in tropical, midlatitude, and polar modes. Atmospheric modes with oscillation periods longer than about one year have global extent. Meridional ocean-atmospheric modes exist in the models wherever there are mean meridional circulations, i.e., tropical, midlatitude, polar, and global. Oceanic and atmospheric eigenvectors have symmetric (assymetric) latitudinal structures if their basic states are symmetric (asymmetric) around the equator. For both models, models calculated at coarser than 2.5° grid spacing do not accurately represent low-frequency variability. Scale analysis shows taht advection by tge basic state meridional velocities is the primary cause of the meridional oscillations on time scales longer than two years in the ocean model and longer than a few weeks in the atmosphere model. Meridional modes of the coupled ocean-atmosphere models are the subject of a subsequent paper.This paper was presented at the International Conference on Modelling of Global Climate Change and Variability, held in Hamburg 11–15 September 1989 under the auspices of the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Guest Editor for these papers is Dr. L. Dümenil     

海洋表层流模式和月尺度海气耦合试验

本文第一部分设计了一个海洋表层流模式，较成功地模拟出冬夏季海表层中的大尺度洋流和海面高度第二部分是月时间尺度的海气耦合试验，将海表层洋流模式和球带范围的大气模式相耦合，用数值试验讨论了洋流和海气耦合方式对模拟结果的影响。     

Sensitivity of tropical Atlantic climate to mixing in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model

The sensitivity of tropical Atlantic climate to upper ocean mixing is investigated using an ocean-only model and a coupled ocean–atmosphere model. The upper ocean thermal structure and associated atmospheric circulation prove to be strongly related to the strength of upper ocean mixing. Using the heat balance in the mixed layer it is shown that an excessively cold equatorial cold tongue can be attributed to entrainment flux at the base of the oceanic mixed layer, that is too large. Enhanced entrainment efficiency acts to deepen the mixed layer and causes strong reduction in the upper ocean divergence in the central equatorial Atlantic. As a result, the simulated sea surface temperature, thermocline structure, and upwelling velocities are close to the observed estimates. In the coupled model, the seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) reduces when the entrainment efficiency in the oceanic mixed layer is enhanced. The precipitation rates decrease in the equatorial region and increase along 10°N, resulting in a more realistic Atlantic Marine ITCZ. The reduced meridional surface temperature gradient in the eastern tropical Atlantic prohibits the development of convective precipitation in the southeastern part of the tropical Atlantic. Also, the simulation of tropical Atlantic variability as expressed in the meridional gradient mode and the eastern cold tongue mode improves when the entrainment efficiency is enhanced.