TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced Upper Ocean Warming Projected by the Eddy-Resolving Community Earth System Model
AU - Xu, Gaopeng
AU - Chang, Ping
AU - Small, Justin
AU - Danabasoglu, Gokhan
AU - Yeager, Stephen
AU - Ramachandran, Sanjiv
AU - Zhang, Qiuying
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Authors.
PY - 2023/11/16
Y1 - 2023/11/16
N2 - Ocean warming is a key factor impacting future changes in climate. Here we investigate vertical structure changes in globally averaged ocean heat content (OHC) in high- (HR) and low-resolution (LR) future climate simulations with the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Compared with observation-based estimates, the simulated OHC anomalies in the upper 700 and 2,000 m during 1960–2020 are more realistic in CESM-HR than -LR. Under RCP8.5 scenario, the net surface heat into the ocean is very similar in CESM-HR and -LR. However, CESM-HR has a larger increase in OHC in the upper 250 m compared to CESM-LR, but a smaller increase below 250 m. This difference can be traced to differences in eddy-induced vertical heat transport between CESM-HR and -LR in the historical period. Moreover, our results suggest that with the same heat input, upper-ocean warming is likely to be underestimated by most non-eddy-resolving climate models.
AB - Ocean warming is a key factor impacting future changes in climate. Here we investigate vertical structure changes in globally averaged ocean heat content (OHC) in high- (HR) and low-resolution (LR) future climate simulations with the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Compared with observation-based estimates, the simulated OHC anomalies in the upper 700 and 2,000 m during 1960–2020 are more realistic in CESM-HR than -LR. Under RCP8.5 scenario, the net surface heat into the ocean is very similar in CESM-HR and -LR. However, CESM-HR has a larger increase in OHC in the upper 250 m compared to CESM-LR, but a smaller increase below 250 m. This difference can be traced to differences in eddy-induced vertical heat transport between CESM-HR and -LR in the historical period. Moreover, our results suggest that with the same heat input, upper-ocean warming is likely to be underestimated by most non-eddy-resolving climate models.
KW - eddy-resolving model
KW - ocean heat uptake
KW - vertical heat transport
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85175954105
U2 - 10.1029/2023GL106100
DO - 10.1029/2023GL106100
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85175954105
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 50
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 21
M1 - e2023GL106100
ER -