Evaluation and Improvement of a SVD-Based Empirical Atmospheric Model

An empirical atmospheric model(EAM) based on the singular value decomposition(SVD) method is evaluated using the composite El Ni(?)o/Southern Oscillation(ENSO) patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) and wind anomalies as the target scenario.Two versions of the SVD-based EAM were presented for comparisons.The first version estimates the wind anomalies in response to SST variations based on modes that were calculated from a pair of global wind and SST fields(i.e.,conventional EAM or CEAM).The second version utilizes the same model design but is based on modes that were calculated in a region-wise manner by separating the tropical domain from the remaining extratropical regions(i.e.,region-wise EAM or REAM). Our study shows that,while CEAM has shown successful model performance over some tropical areas, such as the equatorial eastern Pacific(EEP),the western North Pacific(WNP),and the tropical Indian Ocean(TIO),its performance over the North Pacific(NP) seems poor.When REAM is used to estimate the wind anomalies instead of CEAM,a marked improvement over NP readily emerges.Analyses of coupled modes indicate that such an improvement can be attributed to a much stronger coupled variability captured by the first region-wise SVD mode at higher latitudes compared with that captured by the conventional one. The newly proposed way of constructing the EAM(i.e.,REAM) can be very useful in the coupled studies because it gives the model a wider application beyond the commonly accepted tropical domain.     

Anatomizing the Ocean’s Role in Maintaining the Pacific Decadal Variability

ABSTRACT The role of ocean dynamics in maintaining the Pacific Decadal Variability （PDV） was investigated based on simulation results from the Parallel Ocean Program （POP） ocean general circulation model developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory （LANL）. A long-term control simulation of the LANL-POP model forced by a reconstructed coupled wind stress field over the period 1949-2001 showed that the ocean model not only simulates a reasonable climatology, but also produces a climate variability pattem very similar to observed PDV. In the Equatorial Pacific （EP） region, the decadal warming is confined in the thin surface layer. Beneath the surface, a strong compensating cooling, accompanied by a basin-wide-scale overturning circulation in opposition to the mean flow, occurs in the thermocline layer. In the North Pacific （NP） region, the decadal variability nonetheless exhibits a relatively monotonous pattern, characterized by the dominance of anomalous cooling and eastward flows. A term balance analysis of the perturbation heat budget equation was conducted to highlight the ocean＇s role in main- taining the PDV-like variability over the EP and NP regions. The analyses showed that strong oceanic adjustment must occur in the equatorial thermocline in association with the anomalous overturning circulation in order to maintain the PDV-like variability, including a flattening of the equatorial thermocline slpoe and an enhancement of the upper ocean＇s stratification （stability）, as the climate shifts from a colder regime toward a warmer one. On the other hand, the oceanic response in the extratropical region seems to be confined to the surface layer, without much participation from the subsurface oceanic dynamics.