Shuting Yang

EC-Earth: A Seamless Earth-System Prediction Approach in Action

The EC-Earth consortium is a grouping of meteorologists and Earth-system scientists from 10 European countries, put together to face the challenges of climate and weather forecasting. The NWP system of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECWMF) forms the basis of the EC-Earth Earth-system model. NWP models are designed to accurately capture short-term atmospheric fluctuations. They are used for forecasts at daily-to-seasonal time scales and include data assimilation capabilities. Climate models are designed to represent the global coupled ocean-atmosphere system. The atmospheric model of EC-Earth version 2, is based on ECMWFs Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), cycle 31R1, corresponding to the current seasonal forecast system of ECMWF. The EC-Earth consortium and ECMWF are collaborating on development of initialization procedures to improve long-term predictions. The EC-Earth model displays good performance from daily up to inter-annual time scales and for long-term mean climate.

A look at the ocean in the EC-Earth climate model

EC-Earth is a newly developed global climate system model. Its core components are the Integrated Forecast System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) as the atmosphere component and the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) developed by Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) as the ocean component. Both components are used with a horizontal resolution of roughly one degree. In this paper we describe the performance of NEMO in the coupled system by comparing model output with ocean observations. We concentrate on the surface ocean and mass transports. It appears that in general the model has a cold and fresh bias, but a much too warm Southern Ocean. While sea ice concentration and extent have realistic values, the ice tends to be too thick along the Siberian coast. Transports through important straits have realistic values, but generally are at the lower end of the range of observational estimates. Exceptions are very narrow straits (Gibraltar, Bering) which are too wide due to the limited resolution. Consequently the modelled transports through them are too high. The strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is also at the lower end of observational estimates. The interannual variability of key variables and correlations between them are realistic in size and pattern. This is especially true for the variability of surface temperature in the tropical Pacific (El Niño). Overall the ocean component of EC-Earth performs well and helps making EC-Earth a reliable climate model.

An assessment of a multi-model ensemble of decadal climate predictions

Abstract A multi-model ensemble of decadal prediction experiments, performed in the framework of the EU-funded COMBINE (Comprehensive Modelling of the Earth System for Better Climate Prediction and Projection) Project following the 5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project protocol is examined. The ensemble combines a variety of dynamical models, initialization and perturbation strategies, as well as data assimilation products employed to constrain the initial state of the system. Taking advantage of the multi-model approach, several aspects of decadal climate predictions are assessed, including predictive skill, impact of the initialization strategy and the level of uncertainty characterizing the predicted fluctuations of key climate variables. The present analysis adds to the growing evidence that the current generation of climate models adequately initialized have significant skill in predicting years ahead not only the anthropogenic warming but also part of the internal variability of the climate system. An important finding is that the multi-model ensemble mean does generally outperform the individual forecasts, a well-documented result for seasonal forecasting, supporting the need to extend the multi-model framework to real-time decadal predictions in order to maximize the predictive capabilities of currently available decadal forecast systems. The multi-model perspective did also allow a more robust assessment of the impact of the initialization strategy on the quality of decadal predictions, providing hints of an improved forecast skill under full-value (with respect to anomaly) initialization in the near-term range, over the Indo-Pacific equatorial region. Finally, the consistency across the different model predictions was assessed. Specifically, different systems reveal a general agreement in predicting the near-term evolution of surface temperatures, displaying positive correlations between different decadal hindcasts over most of the global domain.

Tropical cyclones in enhanced resolution CMIP5 experiments

This study investigates the possible effects of global warming on tropical cyclone (TC) activity. The study is conducted using the coupled ocean–atmosphere global climate model EC-Earth configured at a relatively high resolution (T159 with 62 vertical levels), which is integrated following the CMIP5 protocol. By considering the late twentieth century (1979–2009) in the historical simulation and the twenty-first century end (2070–2100) in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, significant future annual mean frequency decreases are found globally and in both hemispheres, accompanied by significant mean lifetime decreases and significant intensity increases, the latter being found through several different measures (but with caveats). In addition, the relatively novel aspect of simulating TCs of the past (1900–1930) is studied to further assess the robustness of the climate change results. These results suggest that TCs in the early twentieth century were more frequent in the southern hemisphere and dissipated more energy in the southern hemisphere and the South Indian Ocean. Although some model biases are present and the coarse model resolution prevents intense TCs in being simulated, reasonable TC simulation skill for other metrics (e.g., TC genesis, frequency of occurrence) is found when validated against present day observations. Thus the model displays an acceptable ability to connect TC climatology with the larger scale circulation.

Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming

The climatic impact of increased Arctic sea ice loss has received growing attention in the last years. However, little focus has been set on the role of sea ice thickness, although it strongly determines surface heat fluxes. Here ensembles of simulations using the EC-Earth atmospheric model (Integrated Forecast System) are performed and analyzed to quantify the atmospheric impacts of Arctic sea ice thickness change since 1982 as revealed by the sea ice model assimilation Global Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Results show that the recent sea ice thinning has significantly affected the Arctic climate, while remote atmospheric responses are less pronounced owing to a high internal atmospheric variability. Locally, the sea ice thinning results in enhancement of near-surface warming of about 1°C per decade in winter, which is most pronounced over marginal sea ice areas with thin ice. This leads to an increase of the Arctic amplification factor by 37%.

Polar Lower-Latitude Linkages and Their Role in Weather and Climate Prediction

International Workshop on Polar-lower Latitude Linkages in Weather and Climate Prediction What: Eighty experts from twenty different countries met to assess recent progress in, and new directions for, our understanding of the mechanisms governing polar-lower latitude linkages and their role in weather and climate prediction including services. When: 10–12 December 2014 Where: Barcelona, Spain

How Much Have Variations in the Meridional Overturning Circulation Contributed to Sea Surface Temperature Trends since 1850? A Study with the EC-Earth Global Climate Model

The surface of the world’s oceans has been warming since the beginning of industrialization. In addition to this, multidecadal sea surface temperature (SST) variations of internal origin exist. Evidence suggests that the North Atlantic Ocean exhibits the strongest multidecadal SST variations and that these variations are connected to the overturning circulation. This work investigates the extent to which these internal multidecadal variations have contributed to enhancing or diminishing the trend induced by the external radiative forcing, globally and in the North Atlantic. A model study is carried out wherein the analyses of a long control simulation with constant radiative forcing at preindustrial level and of an ensemble of simulations with historical forcing from 1850 until 2005 are combined. First, it is noted that global SST trends calculated from the different historical simulations are similar, while there is a large disagreement between the North Atlantic SST trends. Then the control simulation is analyzed, where a relationship between SST anomalies and anomalies in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) for multidecadal and longer time scales is identified. This relationship enables the extraction of the AMOC-related SST variability from each individual member of the ensemble of historical simulations and then the calculation of the SST trends with the AMOC-related variability excluded. For the global SST trends this causes only a little difference while SST trends with AMOC-related variability excluded for the North Atlantic show closer agreement than with the AMOC-related variability included. From this it is concluded that AMOC variability has contributed significantly to North Atlantic SST trends since the mid nineteenth century.

Evaluating Impacts of Recent Arctic Sea Ice Loss on the Northern Hemisphere Winter Climate Change

Wide disagreement among individual modeling studies has contributed to a debate on the role of recent sea ice loss in the Arctic amplification of global warming and the Siberian wintertime cooling trend. We perform coordinated experiments with six atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) forced by the observed and climatological daily sea-ice concentration and sea surface temperature (SST). The results indicate that the impact of the recent sea-ice decline is rather limited to the high-latitude lower troposphere in winter, and the sea-ice changes do not significantly lead to colder winters over Siberia. The observed wintertime Siberian temperature and corresponding circulation trends are reproduced in a small number of ensemble members but not by the multi-model ensemble mean, suggesting that atmospheric internal dynamics could have played a major role in the observed trends.