Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hill, C
• Menemenlis, D
• Henze, CE

Titel

Examining impact of surface boundary formulation andhorizontal resolution on sea-surface height variability ineddying ocean simulations

Ist Teil von

• Eos (Washington, D.C.), 2006-09, Vol.87 (36)

Erscheinungsjahr

2006

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• To improve the specification of error statistics and theparameterization of small-scale proccesses for theEstimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO)project and to investigate solution convergence as modelresolution is increased, a series of full-depth,global-ocean, and sea-ice simulations are being carried outat the NASA Ames Research Center using the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm).These simulations have progressively smaller horizontal gridspacing (1/4, 1/8, and 1/16-deg). Using spectra ofsea-surface height variability along TOPEX/POSEIDON tracksas a metric, we investigate (i) the convergence of thesesimulations toward observations as a function of resolutionand (ii) the sensitivity of eddying ocean simulations tosurface boundary formulation. At different resolutions wecompare MITgcm simulations that use prescribed flux boundaryconditions with simulations that derive air-sea fluxes ofmomentum, heat, and fresh-water dynamically through anatmospheric boundary layer computation. Not surprisinglyresolution is found to impact the model solutions andspectra. Including an atmospheric boundary layercomputation at high resolution, which allows synopticvariability in the ocean to more faithfully influenceair-sea fluxes, also produces shifts in the model solution.The implications of our results for accurate eddy resolvingocean simulations are discussed.