Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations

Øyvind Seland; Mats Bentsen; Dirk Olivié; Thomas Toniazzo; Ada Gjermundsen; Lise Seland Graff; Jens Boldingh Debernard; Alok Kumar Gupta; Yan Chun He; Alf Kirkeväg; Jörg Schwinger; Jerry Tjiputra; Kjetil Schanke Aas; Ingo Bethke; Yuanchao Fan; Jan Griesfeller; Alf Grini; Chuncheng Guo; Mehmet Ilicak; Inger Helene Hafsahl Karset; Oskar Landgren; Johan Liakka; Kine Onsum Moseid; Aleksi Nummelin; Clemens Spensberger; Hui Tang; Zhongshi Zhang; Christoph Heinze; Trond Iversen; Michael Schulz

doi:10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020

Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations

Øyvind Seland^*, Mats Bentsen, Dirk Olivié, Thomas Toniazzo, Ada Gjermundsen, Lise Seland Graff, Jens Boldingh Debernard, Alok Kumar Gupta, Yan Chun He, Alf Kirkeväg, Jörg Schwinger, Jerry Tjiputra, Kjetil Schanke Aas, Ingo Bethke, Yuanchao Fan, Jan Griesfeller, Alf Grini, Chuncheng Guo, Mehmet Ilicak, Inger Helene Hafsahl KarsetOskar Landgren, Johan Liakka, Kine Onsum Moseid, Aleksi Nummelin, Clemens Spensberger, Hui Tang, Zhongshi Zhang, Christoph Heinze, Trond Iversen, Michael Schulz

^*Corresponding author for this work

Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

405 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The second version of the coupled Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) is presented and evaluated. NorESM2 is based on the second version of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2) and shares with CESM2 the computer code infrastructure and many Earth system model components. However, NorESM2 employs entirely different ocean and ocean biogeochemistry models. The atmosphere component of NorESM2 (CAM-Nor) includes a different module for aerosol physics and chemistry, including interactions with cloud and radiation; additionally, CAMNor includes improvements in the formulation of local dry and moist energy conservation, in local and global angular momentum conservation, and in the computations for deep convection and air-sea fluxes. The surface components of NorESM2 have minor changes in the albedo calculations and to land and sea-ice models. We present results from simulations with NorESM2 that were carried out for the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Two versions of the model are used: one with lower (∼2°) atmosphere-land resolution and one with medium (∼1°) atmosphere-land resolution. The stability of the pre-industrial climate and the sensitivity of the model to abrupt and gradual quadrupling of CO2 are assessed, along with the ability of the model to simulate the historical climate under the CMIP6 forcings. Compared to observations and reanalyses, NorESM2 represents an improvement over previous versions of NorESM in most aspects. NorESM2 appears less sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than its predecessors, with an estimated equilibrium climate sensitivity of 2.5K in both resolutions on a 150-year time frame; however, this estimate increases with the time window and the climate sensitivity at equilibration is much higher. We also consider the model response to future scenarios as defined by selected Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) from the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project defined under CMIP6. Under the four scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5), the warming in the period 2090-2099 compared to 1850-1879 reaches 1.3, 2.2, 3.0, and 3.9K in NorESM2-LM, and 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, and 3.9K in NorESM-MM, robustly similar in both resolutions. NorESM2-LM shows a rather satisfactory evolution of recent sea-ice area. In NorESM2-LM, an ice-free Arctic Ocean is only avoided in the SSP1-2.6 scenario.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6165-6200
Number of pages	36
Journal	Geoscientific Model Development
Volume	13
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020
Publication status	Published - 4 Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).

Funding

Acknowledgements. We thank all the scientists, software engineers, and administrators who contributed to the development of CESM2, on which NorESM2 is based. We are particularly grateful to Ce-cile Hannay, Mariana Vertenstein, Andrew Gettelmann, Jean Francois Lamarque and others for invaluable advice on numerous scientific and technical issues when using CESM code, and the support by the CESM programme directors during the NorESM2 development period. We acknowledge support from the Research Council of Norway funded projects EVA (229771), HappiEVA (261821), INES (270061), and KeyClim (295046), Horizon 2020 projects CRESCENDO (Coordinated Research in Earth Systems and Climate: Experiments, Knowledge, Dissemination and Outreach, no. 641816), APPLICATE no. 727862, IS-ENES3 no. 824084 and FORCeS no. 821205, NS Nordic project eSTICC (57001). High-performance computing and storage resources were provided by the Norwegian infrastructure for computational science (through projects NN2345K, NN9560K, NN9252K, NS2345K, NS9082K, NS9560K, NS9252K, and NS9034K) and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The observational SLA dataset used in this work was obtained from the obs4MIPs project hosted on the Earth System Grid Federation and the original altimeter products were produced by Ssalto/Duacs and originally distributed by Aviso+, with support from CNES (https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr, last access: 2 December 2020). Monthly distributions of stratospheric sulfate aerosols were adjusted for use in NorESM by Luo Beiping at ETHZ. Financial support. This research has been supported by the H2020

Funders	Funder number
HappiEVA	261821
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
Norges Forskningsråd	229771
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Engenharia de Software	295046, 270061
Horizon 2020	641816, 821205, 824084, 57001, 727862

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10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020

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Seland, Ø., Bentsen, M., Olivié, D., Toniazzo, T., Gjermundsen, A., Graff, L. S., Debernard, J. B., Gupta, A. K., He, Y. C., Kirkeväg, A., Schwinger, J., Tjiputra, J., Schanke Aas, K., Bethke, I., Fan, Y., Griesfeller, J., Grini, A., Guo, C., Ilicak, M., ... Schulz, M. (2020). Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations. Geoscientific Model Development, 13(12), 6165-6200. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020

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abstract = "The second version of the coupled Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) is presented and evaluated. NorESM2 is based on the second version of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2) and shares with CESM2 the computer code infrastructure and many Earth system model components. However, NorESM2 employs entirely different ocean and ocean biogeochemistry models. The atmosphere component of NorESM2 (CAM-Nor) includes a different module for aerosol physics and chemistry, including interactions with cloud and radiation; additionally, CAMNor includes improvements in the formulation of local dry and moist energy conservation, in local and global angular momentum conservation, and in the computations for deep convection and air-sea fluxes. The surface components of NorESM2 have minor changes in the albedo calculations and to land and sea-ice models. We present results from simulations with NorESM2 that were carried out for the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Two versions of the model are used: one with lower (∼2°) atmosphere-land resolution and one with medium (∼1°) atmosphere-land resolution. The stability of the pre-industrial climate and the sensitivity of the model to abrupt and gradual quadrupling of CO2 are assessed, along with the ability of the model to simulate the historical climate under the CMIP6 forcings. Compared to observations and reanalyses, NorESM2 represents an improvement over previous versions of NorESM in most aspects. NorESM2 appears less sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than its predecessors, with an estimated equilibrium climate sensitivity of 2.5K in both resolutions on a 150-year time frame; however, this estimate increases with the time window and the climate sensitivity at equilibration is much higher. We also consider the model response to future scenarios as defined by selected Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) from the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project defined under CMIP6. Under the four scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5), the warming in the period 2090-2099 compared to 1850-1879 reaches 1.3, 2.2, 3.0, and 3.9K in NorESM2-LM, and 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, and 3.9K in NorESM-MM, robustly similar in both resolutions. NorESM2-LM shows a rather satisfactory evolution of recent sea-ice area. In NorESM2-LM, an ice-free Arctic Ocean is only avoided in the SSP1-2.6 scenario.",

author = "{\O}yvind Seland and Mats Bentsen and Dirk Olivi{\'e} and Thomas Toniazzo and Ada Gjermundsen and Graff, {Lise Seland} and Debernard, {Jens Boldingh} and Gupta, {Alok Kumar} and He, {Yan Chun} and Alf Kirkev{\"a}g and J{\"o}rg Schwinger and Jerry Tjiputra and {Schanke Aas}, Kjetil and Ingo Bethke and Yuanchao Fan and Jan Griesfeller and Alf Grini and Chuncheng Guo and Mehmet Ilicak and Karset, {Inger Helene Hafsahl} and Oskar Landgren and Johan Liakka and Moseid, {Kine Onsum} and Aleksi Nummelin and Clemens Spensberger and Hui Tang and Zhongshi Zhang and Christoph Heinze and Trond Iversen and Michael Schulz",

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doi = "10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020",

language = "English",

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Seland, Ø, Bentsen, M, Olivié, D, Toniazzo, T, Gjermundsen, A, Graff, LS, Debernard, JB, Gupta, AK, He, YC, Kirkeväg, A, Schwinger, J, Tjiputra, J, Schanke Aas, K, Bethke, I, Fan, Y, Griesfeller, J, Grini, A, Guo, C, Ilicak, M, Karset, IHH, Landgren, O, Liakka, J, Moseid, KO, Nummelin, A, Spensberger, C, Tang, H, Zhang, Z, Heinze, C, Iversen, T & Schulz, M 2020, 'Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations', Geoscientific Model Development, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 6165-6200. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6165-2020

TY - JOUR

T1 - Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations

AU - Seland, Øyvind

AU - Bentsen, Mats

AU - Olivié, Dirk

AU - Toniazzo, Thomas

AU - Gjermundsen, Ada

AU - Graff, Lise Seland

AU - Debernard, Jens Boldingh

AU - Gupta, Alok Kumar

AU - He, Yan Chun

AU - Kirkeväg, Alf

AU - Schwinger, Jörg

AU - Tjiputra, Jerry

AU - Schanke Aas, Kjetil

AU - Bethke, Ingo

AU - Fan, Yuanchao

AU - Griesfeller, Jan

AU - Grini, Alf

AU - Guo, Chuncheng

AU - Ilicak, Mehmet

AU - Karset, Inger Helene Hafsahl

AU - Landgren, Oskar

AU - Liakka, Johan

AU - Moseid, Kine Onsum

AU - Nummelin, Aleksi

AU - Spensberger, Clemens

AU - Tang, Hui

AU - Zhang, Zhongshi

AU - Heinze, Christoph

AU - Iversen, Trond

AU - Schulz, Michael

PY - 2020/12/4

Y1 - 2020/12/4

N2 - The second version of the coupled Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) is presented and evaluated. NorESM2 is based on the second version of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2) and shares with CESM2 the computer code infrastructure and many Earth system model components. However, NorESM2 employs entirely different ocean and ocean biogeochemistry models. The atmosphere component of NorESM2 (CAM-Nor) includes a different module for aerosol physics and chemistry, including interactions with cloud and radiation; additionally, CAMNor includes improvements in the formulation of local dry and moist energy conservation, in local and global angular momentum conservation, and in the computations for deep convection and air-sea fluxes. The surface components of NorESM2 have minor changes in the albedo calculations and to land and sea-ice models. We present results from simulations with NorESM2 that were carried out for the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Two versions of the model are used: one with lower (∼2°) atmosphere-land resolution and one with medium (∼1°) atmosphere-land resolution. The stability of the pre-industrial climate and the sensitivity of the model to abrupt and gradual quadrupling of CO2 are assessed, along with the ability of the model to simulate the historical climate under the CMIP6 forcings. Compared to observations and reanalyses, NorESM2 represents an improvement over previous versions of NorESM in most aspects. NorESM2 appears less sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than its predecessors, with an estimated equilibrium climate sensitivity of 2.5K in both resolutions on a 150-year time frame; however, this estimate increases with the time window and the climate sensitivity at equilibration is much higher. We also consider the model response to future scenarios as defined by selected Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) from the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project defined under CMIP6. Under the four scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5), the warming in the period 2090-2099 compared to 1850-1879 reaches 1.3, 2.2, 3.0, and 3.9K in NorESM2-LM, and 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, and 3.9K in NorESM-MM, robustly similar in both resolutions. NorESM2-LM shows a rather satisfactory evolution of recent sea-ice area. In NorESM2-LM, an ice-free Arctic Ocean is only avoided in the SSP1-2.6 scenario.

AB - The second version of the coupled Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) is presented and evaluated. NorESM2 is based on the second version of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2) and shares with CESM2 the computer code infrastructure and many Earth system model components. However, NorESM2 employs entirely different ocean and ocean biogeochemistry models. The atmosphere component of NorESM2 (CAM-Nor) includes a different module for aerosol physics and chemistry, including interactions with cloud and radiation; additionally, CAMNor includes improvements in the formulation of local dry and moist energy conservation, in local and global angular momentum conservation, and in the computations for deep convection and air-sea fluxes. The surface components of NorESM2 have minor changes in the albedo calculations and to land and sea-ice models. We present results from simulations with NorESM2 that were carried out for the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Two versions of the model are used: one with lower (∼2°) atmosphere-land resolution and one with medium (∼1°) atmosphere-land resolution. The stability of the pre-industrial climate and the sensitivity of the model to abrupt and gradual quadrupling of CO2 are assessed, along with the ability of the model to simulate the historical climate under the CMIP6 forcings. Compared to observations and reanalyses, NorESM2 represents an improvement over previous versions of NorESM in most aspects. NorESM2 appears less sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than its predecessors, with an estimated equilibrium climate sensitivity of 2.5K in both resolutions on a 150-year time frame; however, this estimate increases with the time window and the climate sensitivity at equilibration is much higher. We also consider the model response to future scenarios as defined by selected Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) from the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project defined under CMIP6. Under the four scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5), the warming in the period 2090-2099 compared to 1850-1879 reaches 1.3, 2.2, 3.0, and 3.9K in NorESM2-LM, and 1.3, 2.1, 3.1, and 3.9K in NorESM-MM, robustly similar in both resolutions. NorESM2-LM shows a rather satisfactory evolution of recent sea-ice area. In NorESM2-LM, an ice-free Arctic Ocean is only avoided in the SSP1-2.6 scenario.

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Overview of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM2) and key climate response of CMIP6 DECK, historical, and scenario simulations

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