An assessment of the Arctic Ocean in a suite of interannual CORE-II simulations. Part II: Liquid freshwater

Qiang Wang*, Mehmet Ilicak, Rüdiger Gerdes, Helge Drange, Yevgeny Aksenov, David A. Bailey, Mats Bentsen, Arne Biastoch, Alexandra Bozec, Claus Böning, Christophe Cassou, Eric Chassignet, Andrew C. Coward, Beth Curry, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Sergey Danilov, Elodie Fernandez, Pier Giuseppe Fogli, Yosuke Fujii, Stephen M. GriffiesDoroteaciro Iovino, Alexandra Jahn, Thomas Jung, William G. Large, Craig Lee, Camille Lique, Jianhua Lu, Simona Masina, A. J.George Nurser, Benjamin Rabe, Christina Roth, David Salas y Mélia, Bonita L. Samuels, Paul Spence, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Sophie Valcke, Aurore Voldoire, Xuezhu Wang, Steve G. Yeager

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

66 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Arctic Ocean simulated in 14 global ocean-sea ice models in the framework of the Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiments, phase II (CORE-II) is analyzed in this study. The focus is on the Arctic liquid freshwater (FW) sources and freshwater content (FWC). The models agree on the interannual variability of liquid FW transport at the gateways where the ocean volume transport determines the FW transport variability. The variation of liquid FWC is induced by both the surface FW flux (associated with sea ice production) and lateral liquid FW transport, which are in phase when averaged on decadal time scales. The liquid FWC shows an increase starting from the mid-1990s, caused by the reduction of both sea ice formation and liquid FW export, with the former being more significant in most of the models. The mean state of the FW budget is less consistently simulated than the temporal variability. The model ensemble means of liquid FW transport through the Arctic gateways compare well with observations. On average, the models have too high mean FWC, weaker upward trends of FWC in the recent decade than the observation, and low consistency in the temporal variation of FWC spatial distribution, which needs to be further explored for the purpose of model development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)86-109
Number of pages24
JournalOcean Modelling
Volume99
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

Funding

The WCRP/CLIVAR Ocean Model Development Panel (OMDP) is responsible for organizing the Coordinated Ocean-sea ice Reference Experiments, with support from the international CLIVAR and U.S. CLIVAR project offices. We are grateful for the efforts of modelers who have contributed to the simulation and processing of the CORE-II experiments. We thank Igor Polyakov for providing us with the FWC observational data. Comments by two reviewers and Claudia Wekerle, Richard Greatbatch and Tor Eldevik helped to improve the manuscript. Q. Wang is funded by the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regional Climate Change) project. C. Roth was supported by the Co-Operative Project RACE-Regional Atlantic Circulation and Global Change funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research ( BMBF ), grant no. 03F0651B . The work of P. Spence was supported by the Australian Research Council grant DE150100223 . The BERGEN contribution is supported by the Research Council of Norway through the EarthClim ( 207711/E10 ) and NOTUR/NorStore projects, as well as the Centre for Climate Dynamics at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. The CMCC contribution received funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research and the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land, and Sea under the GEMINA project. NCAR is sponsored by the U. S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ). S.G. Yeager was supported by the NOAA Climate Program Office under Climate Variability and Predictability Program Grant NA09OAR4310163 and NA13OAR4310138 and by the NSF Collaborative Research EaSM2 grant OCE-1243015 to NCAR. Y. Aksenov, A.J.G. Nurser, and A.C. Coward were partly funded from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Marine Centres' Strategic National Capability Research Programme. Y. Aksenov was also partly supported by the UK NERC TEA-COSI Research Project (NE/I028947/). The NOC-ORCA simulations were performed using the NOC local computing facilities and the cluster MOBILIS. The AWI-FESOM and Kiel-ORCA05 experiments were performed at the North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN). The WCRP/CLIVAR Ocean Model Development Panel (OMDP) is responsible for organizing the Coordinated Ocean-sea ice Reference Experiments, with support from the international CLIVAR and U.S. CLIVAR project offices. We are grateful for the efforts of modelers who have contributed to the simulation and processing of the CORE-II experiments. We thank Igor Polyakov for providing us with the FWC observational data. Comments by two reviewers and Claudia Wekerle, Richard Greatbatch and Tor Eldevik helped to improve the manuscript. Q. Wang is funded by the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regional Climate Change) project. C. Roth was supported by the Co-Operative Project RACE-Regional Atlantic Circulation and Global Change funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), grant no. 03F0651B. The work of P. Spence was supported by the Australian Research Council grant DE150100223. The BERGEN contribution is supported by the Research Council of Norway through the EarthClim (207711/E10) and NOTUR/NorStore projects, as well as the Centre for Climate Dynamics at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. The CMCC contribution received funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research and the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land, and Sea under the GEMINA project. NCAR is sponsored by the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF). S.G. Yeager was supported by the NOAA Climate Program Office under Climate Variability and Predictability Program Grant NA09OAR4310163 and NA13OAR4310138 and by the NSF Collaborative Research EaSM2 grant OCE-1243015 to NCAR. Y. Aksenov, A.J.G. Nurser, and A.C. Coward were partly funded from the UK Natural Environment Research Council(NERC) Marine Centres'' Strategic National Capability Research Programme. Y. Aksenov was also partly supported by the UK NERC TEA-COSI Research Project (NE/I028947/). The NOC-ORCA simulations were performed using the NOC local computing facilities and the cluster MOBILIS. The AWI-FESOM and Kiel-ORCA05 experiments were performed at the North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN).

FundersFunder number
Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM
Italian Ministry of Environment, Land
NOTUR
NorStore
National Science Foundation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationOCE-1243015, NA13OAR4310138, NA09OAR4310163
Natural Environment Research CouncilNE/I028947/1, noc010010, NE/I029633/1
Australian Research CouncilDE150100223
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung03F0651B
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
Norges Forskningsråd207711/E10

    Keywords

    • Arctic Ocean
    • CORE II atmospheric forcing
    • Freshwater
    • Sea ice

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