The GFDL-CM4X Climate Model Hierarchy, Part II: Case Studies

Stephen M. Griffies, Alistair Adcroft, Rebecca L. Beadling, Mitchell Bushuk, Chiung Yin Chang, Henri F. Drake, Raphael Dussin, Robert W. Hallberg, William J. Hurlin, Hemant Khatri, John P. Krasting, Matthew Lobo, Graeme A. MacGilchrist, Brandon G. Reichl, Aakash Sane, Olga Sergienko, Maike Sonnewald, Jacob M. Steinberg, Jan Erik Tesdal, Matthew ThomasKatherine E. Turner, Marshall L. Ward, Michael Winton, Niki Zadeh, Laure Zanna, Rong Zhang, Wenda Zhang, Ming Zhao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper is Part II of a two-part paper that documents the Climate Model version 4X (CM4X) hierarchy of coupled climate models developed at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Part I of this paper is presented in Griffies et al. (2025a, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004861). Here we present a suite of case studies that examine ocean and sea ice features that are targeted for further research, which include sea level, eastern boundary upwelling, Arctic and Southern Ocean sea ice, Southern Ocean circulation, and North Atlantic circulation. The case studies are based on experiments that follow the protocol of version 6 from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. The analysis reveals a systematic improvement in the simulation fidelity of CM4X relative to its CM4.0 predecessor, as well as an improvement when refining the ocean/sea ice horizontal grid spacing from the (Formula presented.) of CM4X-p25 to the (Formula presented.) of CM4X-p125. Even so, there remain many outstanding biases, thus pointing to the need for further grid refinements, enhancements to numerical methods, and/or advances in parameterizations, each of which target long-standing model biases and limitations.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2024MS004862
JournalJournal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Volume17
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2025
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • coupled models of the climate system
  • earth system modeling
  • global climate models
  • oceans

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