Resolving Weather Fronts Increases the Large-Scale Circulation Response to Gulf Stream SST Anomalies in Variable-Resolution CESM2 Simulations

Canonical understanding based on general circulation models (GCMs) is that the atmospheric circulation response to midlatitude sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies is weak compared to the larger influence of tropical SST anomalies. However, the ∼100-km horizontal resolution of modern GCMs is too coarse to resolve strong updrafts within weather fronts, which could provide a pathway for surface anomalies to be communicated aloft. Here, we investigate the large-scale atmospheric circulation response to idealized Gulf Stream SST anomalies in Community Atmosphere Model (CAM6) simulations with 14-km regional grid refinement over the North Atlantic, and compare it to the responses in simulations with 28-km regional refinement and uniform 111-km resolution. The highest resolution simulations show a large positive response of the wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to positive SST anomalies in the Gulf Stream, a 0.4-standard-deviation anomaly in the seasonal-mean NAO for 2°C SST anomalies. The lower-resolution simulations show a weaker response with a different spatial structure. The enhanced large-scale circulation response results from an increase in resolved vertical motions with resolution and an associated increase in the influence of SST anomalies on transient-eddy heat and momentum fluxes in the free troposphere. In response to positive SST anomalies, these processes lead to a stronger and less variable North Atlantic jet, as is characteristic of positive NAO anomalies. Our results suggest that the atmosphere responds differently to midlatitude SST anomalies in higher-resolution models and that regional refinement in key regions offers a potential pathway to improve multi-year regional climate predictions based on midlatitude SSTs.