The North Atlantic subpolar circulation in an eddy-resolving global ocean model

By A. Marzocchi, J. Hirschi, N. P. Holliday, S. Cunningham, A. Blaker, A. Coward. 2015

194 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The subpolar North Atlantic represents a key region for global climate, but most numerical models still have well-described limitations in correctly simulating the local circulation patterns. Here, we present the analysis of a 30-year run with a global eddy-resolving (1/12°) version of the NEMO ocean model. Compared to the 1° and 1/4° equivalent versions, this simulation more realistically represents the shape of the Subpolar Gyre, the position of the North Atlantic Current, and the Gulf Stream separation. Other key improvements are found in the representation of boundary currents, multi-year variability of temperature and depth of winter mixing in the Labrador Sea, and the transport of overflows at the Greenland–Scotland Ridge. However, the salinity, stratification and mean depth of winter mixing in the Labrador Sea, and the density and depth of overflow water south of the sill, still present challenges to the model. This simulation also provides further insight into the spatio-temporal development of the warming event observed in the Subpolar Gyre in the mid 1990s, which appears to coincide with a phase of increased eddy activity in the southernmost part of the gyre. This may have provided a gateway through which heat would have propagated into the gyre's interior.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/76ca177929e9aa2190a241d1fd98f5e1075a6830

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atmospheric Science

1. Robert Hallberg
2. S. Griffies
3. Andrew T. Wittenberg
4. I. Held
5. Alistair Adcroft
6. M. Harrison
7. Malte Jansen
8. M. Winton

In Global and Planetary Change

1. S. Griffies
2. Robert Hallberg
3. Alistair Adcroft
4. Sonya Legg
5. M. Winton
6. I. Held
7. Malte Jansen
8. M. Harrison

In Oceanography

1. Robert Hallberg
2. S. Griffies
3. Alistair Adcroft
4. I. Held
5. Sonya Legg
6. Malte Jansen
7. M. Harrison
8. Andrew T. Wittenberg

Citations in the corpus

• The BRIDGE HadCM3 family of climate models: HadCM3@Bristol v1.0 (2017, unknown): “Marzocchi et al., 2015a) This can be seen by comparing HadCM3B and HadCM3BL, which are models that differ most in their ocean resolution”
• The GFDL Global Ocean and Sea Ice Model OM4.0: Model Description and Simulation Features (2019, background): “Marzocchi et al. (2015) also showed continued improvement with refined resolution in a North Atlantic regional model at comparable resolutions.”