Takashi T. Sakamoto

Pacific decadal oscillation hindcasts relevant to near-term climate prediction

Decadal-scale climate variations over the Pacific Ocean and its surroundings are strongly related to the so-called Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) which is coherent with wintertime climate over North America and Asian monsoon, and have important impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries. In a near-term climate prediction covering the period up to 2030, we require knowledge of the future state of internal variations in the climate system such as the PDO as well as the global warming signal. We perform sets of ensemble hindcast and forecast experiments using a coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model to examine the predictability of internal variations on decadal timescales, in addition to the response to external forcing due to changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, volcanic activity, and solar cycle variations. Our results highlight that an initialization of the upper-ocean state using historical observations is effective for successful hindcasts of the PDO and has a great impact on future predictions. Ensemble hindcasts for the 20th century demonstrate a predictive skill in the upper-ocean temperature over almost a decade, particularly around the Kuroshio-Oyashio extension (KOE) and subtropical oceanic frontal regions where the PDO signals are observed strongest. A negative tendency of the predicted PDO phase in the coming decade will enhance the rising trend in surface air-temperature (SAT) over east Asia and over the KOE region, and suppress it along the west coasts of North and South America and over the equatorial Pacific. This suppression will contribute to a slowing down of the global-mean SAT rise.

Responses of the Kuroshio and the Kuroshio Extension to global warming in a high‐resolution climate model

[1] Using a high-resolution atmosphere-ocean coupled climate model, responses of the Kuroshio and the Kuroshio Extension (KE) to global warming are investigated. In a climate change experiment with atmospheric CO 2 concentration ideally increased by 1% year -1 , the current velocity of the Kuroshio and KE increases, while the latitude of the Kuroshio separation to the east of Japan does not change significantly. The increase of the current velocity is up to 0.3 m s -1 at 150°E. This acceleration of the Kuroshio and KE is due to changes in wind stress over the North Pacific and consequent spin-up of the Kuroshio recirculation gyre. The acceleration of the currents may affect sea level along the southern coast of Japan and northward heat transport under global warming.

An overview of decadal climate predictability in a multi-model ensemble by climate model MIROC

Decadal climate predictability is examined in hindcast experiments by a multi-model ensemble using three versions of the coupled atmosphere-ocean model MIROC. In these hindcast experiments, initial conditions are obtained from an anomaly assimilation procedure using the observed oceanic temperature and salinity with prescribed natural and anthropogenic forcings on the basis of the historical data and future emission scenarios in the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Results of the multi-model ensemble in our hindcast experiments show that predictability of surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies on decadal timescales mostly originates from externally forced variability. Although the predictable component of internally generated variability has considerably smaller SAT variance than that of externally forced variability, ocean subsurface temperature variability has predictive skills over almost a decade, particularly in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic where dominant signals associated with Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) are observed. Initialization enhances the predictive skills of AMO and PDO indices and slightly improves those of global mean temperature anomalies. Improvement of these predictive skills in the multi-model ensemble is higher than that in a single-model ensemble.

Potential impact of global warming on North Pacific spring blooms projected by an eddy-permitting 3-D ocean ecosystem model.

[1] Using an eddy-permitting ecosystem model with a projected physical environment from a high-resolution climate model, we explored the potential impact of global warming on spring blooms in the western North Pacific. We focused on statistically significant signals compared with natural variability. Considering 2xCO 2 conditions, maximum biomass during the spring bloom is found to occur 10 to 20 days earlier due to strengthened stratification, and in the subarctic region, the bloom to decrease in magnitude relative to pre-industrial simulation. However, in the northern part of the Kuroshio extension region where photosynthesis is not strongly limited by nutrients, the maximum biomass increases by 20 to 40% associated with rising temperatures, even though the annually averaged biomass slightly decreases. Our results reveal that even if global warming weakly affects annually averaged quantities, it could strongly affect certain species and biogeochemical processes which depend on seasonal events such as blooms.