Journal Article

An Evaluation of the Ocean and Sea Ice Climate of E3SM Using MPAS and Interannual CORE‐II Forcing

Feige, Nils, Woodring, Jonathan L., Maltrud, Mathew E., Chen, Qingshan, Wolfe, Jonathan D., Asay‐Davis, Xylar S., Streletz, Gregory J., Jacobsen, Douglas W., Jones, Philip W., Petersen, Mark R., Van Roekel, Luke P., Veneziani, Milena, Wolfram, Phillip J., Price, Stephen F., Ringler, Todd D., Turner, Adrian K., Berres, Anne S., Hoffman, Matthew J.

2019

Overview

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) is a new coupled Earth system model sponsored by the U.S Department of Energy. Here we present E3SM global simulations using active ocean and sea ice that are driven by the Coordinated Ocean‐ice Reference Experiments II (CORE‐II) interannual atmospheric forcing data set. The E3SM ocean and sea ice components are MPAS‐Ocean and MPAS‐Seaice, which use the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) framework and run on unstructured horizontal meshes. For this study, grid cells vary from 30 to 60 km for the low‐resolution mesh and 6 to 18 km at high resolution. The vertical grid is a structured z‐star coordinate and uses 60 and 80 layers for low and high resolution, respectively. The lower‐resolution simulation was run for five CORE cycles (310 years) with little drift in sea surface temperature (SST) or heat content. The meridional heat transport (MHT) is within observational range, while the meridional overturning circulation at 26.5°N is low compared to observations. The largest temperature biases occur in the Labrador Sea and western boundary currents (WBCs), and the mixed layer is deeper than observations at northern high latitudes in the winter months. In the Antarctic, maximum mixed layer depths (MLD) compare well with observations, but the spatial MLD pattern is shifted relative to observations. Sea ice extent, volume, and concentration agree well with observations. At high resolution, the sea surface height compares well with satellite observations in mean and variability. Key Points The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) is a new climate model by the U.S. Department of Energy E3SM ocean and ice components use unstructured horizontal meshes for variable‐resolution simulations The 310‐year E3SM simulations agree well with observations in ocean currents and sea ice coverage

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Subject: Atmosphere / Atmospheric forcing / Boundary currents / climate / Climate change / Earth / Earth Sciences / Energy / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES / Heat content / Heat transport / Laboratories / Marine parks / Meridional heat transport / Meridional overturning circulation / Mixed layer / Mixed layer depth / modeling / ocean / Ocean circulation / Oceans / open climate campaign / Resolution / Satellite observation / Sea ice / Sea surface / Sea surface temperature / Western boundary currents