Description: 〈jats:p〉Abstract. The ocean mixed layer is the interface between the ocean interior and the atmosphere or sea ice and plays a key role in climate variability. It is thus critical that numerical models used in climate studies are capable of a good representation of the mixed layer, especially its depth. Here we evaluate the mixed-layer depth (MLD) in six pairs of non-eddying (1∘ grid spacing) and eddy-rich (up to 1/16∘) models from the Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (OMIP), forced by a common atmospheric state. For model evaluation, we use an updated MLD dataset computed from observations using the OMIP protocol (a constant density threshold). In winter, low-resolution models exhibit large biases in the deep-water formation regions. These biases are reduced in eddy-rich models but not uniformly across models and regions. The improvement is most noticeable in the mode-water formation regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Results in the Southern Ocean are more contrasted, with biases of either sign remaining at high resolution. In eddy-rich models, mesoscale eddies control the spatial variability in MLD in winter. Contrary to a hypothesis that the deepening of the mixed layer in anticyclones would make the MLD larger globally, eddy-rich models tend to have a shallower mixed layer at most latitudes than coarser models do. In addition, our study highlights the sensitivity of the MLD computation to the choice of a reference level and the spatio-temporal sampling, which motivates new recommendations for MLD computation in future model intercomparison projects. 〈/jats:p〉

Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 124, (2019): 9141-9170, doi: 10.1029/2019JC015210.

Description: The observational network around the North Atlantic has improved significantly over the last few decades with subsurface profiling floats and satellite observations and the recent efforts to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These have shown decadal time scale changes across the North Atlantic including in heat content, heat transport, and the circulation. However, there are still significant gaps in the observational coverage. Ocean reanalyses integrate the observations with a dynamically consistent ocean model and can be used to understand the observed changes. However, the ability of the reanalyses to represent the dynamics must also be assessed. We use an ensemble of global ocean reanalyses to examine the time mean state and interannual‐decadal variability of the North Atlantic ocean since 1993. We assess how well the reanalyses are able to capture processes and whether any understanding can be gained. In particular, we examine aspects of the circulation including convection, AMOC and gyre strengths, and transports. We find that reanalyses show some consistency, in particular showing a weakening of the subpolar gyre and AMOC at 50°N from the mid‐1990s until at least 2009 (related to decadal variability in previous studies), a strengthening and then weakening of the AMOC at 26.5°N since 2000, and impacts of circulation changes on transports. These results agree with model studies and the AMOC observations at 26.5°N since 2005. We also see less spread across the ensemble in AMOC strength and mixed layer depth, suggesting improvements as the observational coverage has improved.

Description: This work was initiated through the EU COST‐EOS‐1402 project which supported the development of this paper by funding project meetings, both in person and virtual. We would like to thank Aida Azcarate for organizing the funding for the meetings and would like to thank Martha Buckley, Gokhan Danabasoglu, and Simon Josey for useful discussions. Jackson, Storto and Zuo were partially funded, by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS: 23‐GLO‐RAN) and Zuo was partially funded by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Jackson was also partially funded by the joint UK BEIS/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). Haines and Robson acknowledge funding under the NERC RAPID projects RAMOC and DYNAMOC (NE/M005127/1) respectively, and Robson also acknowledges funding from the ACSIS project. Mignac was supported for PhD scholarship by the CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil (Proc. BEX 1386/15‐8). Forget acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation (549931) and the NASA IDS program (6937342). Work by Piecuch was carried out under the ECCO project, funded by the NASA Physical Oceanography, Cryospheric Science, and Modeling, Analysis and Prediction programs, and supported by the Independent Research and Development Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Wilson was funded by the NERC UK‐OSNAP project (NE/K010875.1) as part of the international OSNAP program. NorCPM‐v1 reanalysis was cofunded by the Center for Climate Dynamics at the Bjerknes Center, the Norwegian Research Council under the EPOCASA (229774/E10) and SFE (270733) research projects, the NordForsk under the Nordic Centre of Excellence (ARCPATH, 76654), and the Trond Mohn Foundation under the project BFS2018TMT01. NorCPM‐v1 reanalysis received a grant for computer time from the Norwegian Program for supercomputer (NOTUR2, project NN9039K) and a storage grant (NORSTORE, NS9039K). Data for the figures are available to download (from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2598509). Data from some reanalysis products are available to download (from http://marine.copernicus.eu/services-portfolio/access-to-products/) under product names GLOBAL_REANALYSIS_PHY_001_025 (GLORYS2v4), GLOBAL_REANALYSIS_PHY_001_026 (C‐GLORSv7, GLORYS2v4, GloSea5 and ORAS5) and GLOBAL_REANALYSIS_PHY_001_030 (GLORYS12V1).

Description: 2020-05-06

Description: 〈jats:p〉Abstract. This study evaluates the impact of increasing resolution on Arctic Ocean simulations using five pairs of matched low- and high-resolution models within the OMIP-2 (Ocean Model Intercomparison Project phase 2) framework. The primary objective is to assess whether a higher resolution can mitigate typical biases in low-resolution models and improve the representation of key climate-relevant variables. We reveal that increasing the horizontal resolution contributes to a reduction in biases in mean temperature and salinity and improves the simulation of the Atlantic water layer and its decadal warming events. A higher resolution also leads to better agreement with observed surface mixed-layer depth, cold halocline base depth and Arctic gateway transports in the Fram and Davis straits. However, the simulation of the mean state and temporal changes in Arctic freshwater content does not show improvement with increased resolution. Not all models achieve improvements for all analyzed ocean variables when spatial resolution is increased so it is crucial to recognize that model numerics and parameterizations also play an important role in faithful simulations. Overall, a higher resolution shows promise in improving the simulation of key Arctic Ocean features and processes, but efforts in model development are required to achieve more accurate representations across all climate-relevant variables. 〈/jats:p〉