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Impact of chlorophyll bias on the tropical Pacific mean climate in an earth system model

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Abstract

Climate modeling groups nowadays develop earth system models (ESMs) by incorporating biogeochemical processes in their climate models. The ESMs, however, often show substantial bias in simulated marine biogeochemistry which can potentially introduce an undesirable bias in physical ocean fields through biogeophysical interactions. This study examines how and how much the chlorophyll bias in a state-of-the-art ESM affects the mean and seasonal cycle of tropical Pacific sea-surface temperature (SST). The ESM used in the present study shows a sizeable positive bias in the simulated tropical chlorophyll. We found that the correction of the chlorophyll bias can reduce the ESM’s intrinsic cold SST mean bias in the equatorial Pacific. The biologically-induced cold SST bias is strongly affected by seasonally-dependent air–sea coupling strength. In addition, the correction of chlorophyll bias can improve the annual cycle of SST by up to 25%. This result suggests a possible modeling approach in understanding the two-way interactions between physical and chlorophyll biases by biogeophysical effects.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant KMIPA 2015-1041 and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1A2B3011511). H.-G. Lim is supported by Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), 77 Cheongam-Ro Nam-Gu, Pohang, 790-784, South Korea

    Hyung-Gyu Lim & Jong-Seong Kug

  2. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University, 201 Forrestal Rd, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Jong-Yeon Park

  3. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Jong-Yeon Park

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  1. Hyung-Gyu Lim
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Correspondence to Jong-Yeon Park or Jong-Seong Kug.

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Lim, HG., Park, JY. & Kug, JS. Impact of chlorophyll bias on the tropical Pacific mean climate in an earth system model. Clim Dyn 51, 2681–2694 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-4036-8

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