Abstract
A long-term spin-up and a subsequent interannual simulation are conducted for the ocean–ice component of the climate model intercomparison project (CMIP)-class earth system model of the Japan Meteorological Agency/Meteorological Research Institute. This experiment has three purposes: first is to assess the ability of our model with the Coordinated Ocean–ice Reference Experiments (COREs) forcing in reproducing the present ocean-climate; second is to understand the ocean-climate variability for the past 60 years; third is to present an example of evaluating an ocean–ice interannual variability simulation. The Pacific Ocean is focused on for the last two purposes. After integrating for about 1500 years with repeated use of a detrended CORE interannual forcing, the model reaches a quasi-steady state where the present climate is reproduced satisfactorily. Then, the interannual variability simulation is conducted with the retrieved forcing trend and the result is analyzed. The simulation is successful at reproducing the long-term variability in the Pacific and surrounding oceans. Brief analyses of the tropical and mid-latitude upper layer, deep circulation, and the Arctic sea ice are presented. A caveat in treating other parts of the globe is due to the recent intense convection in the Southern Ocean caused by a remarkably increasing trend of the Southern Hemisphere westerly. Overall, the current simulation with our CMIP-class ocean–ice model is shown to be useful for studying the present ocean-climate variability, specifically in the Pacific sector. It could also be used as a benchmark control experiment that facilitates further research, model development, and intercomparison.
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Acknowledgments
Authors are grateful to Hiroshi Ishizaki, Yoshiteru Kitamura, and Ichiro Ishikawa, who initiated the development of MRI.COM as a multipurpose ocean model. Discussions about various issues of ocean modeling with Hiroyasu Hasumi at the AORI of the University of Tokyo, Yoshiki Komuro and Tatsuo Suzuki at JAMSTEC were very helpful. Comments from Seiji Yukimoto and Yukimasa Adachi in the Climate Research Department of MRI during the course of developing MRI-ESM1 greatly helped improve the model and its performance. Constructive and encouraging comments from anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. This work is funded by MRI and is partly supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 21340133 and (C) 22540455.
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Tsujino, H., Hirabara, M., Nakano, H. et al. Simulating present climate of the global ocean–ice system using the Meteorological Research Institute Community Ocean Model (MRI.COM): simulation characteristics and variability in the Pacific sector. J Oceanogr 67, 449–479 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-011-0050-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-011-0050-3