Open AccessReference aquaplanet climate in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel, V ersion 5
Author(s) -
Medeiros Brian,
Williamson David L.,
Olson Jerry G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of advances in modeling earth systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.03
H-Index - 58
ISSN - 1942-2466
DOI - 10.1002/2015ms000593
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , climate simulation , meteorology , grid , computer science , climatology , climate model , atmospheric sciences , physics , geology , climate change , geodesy , oceanography
Fundamental characteristics of the aquaplanet climate simulated by the Community Atmosphere Model, Version 5.3 (CAM5.3) are presented. The assumptions and simplifications of the configuration are described. A 16 year long, perpetual equinox integration with prescribed SST using the model's standard 1° grid spacing is presented as a reference simulation. Statistical analysis is presented that shows similar aquaplanet configurations can be run for about 2 years to obtain robust climatological structures, including global and zonal means, eddy statistics, and precipitation distributions. Such a simulation can be compared to the reference simulation to discern differences in the climate, including an assessment of confidence in the differences. To aid such comparisons, the reference simulation has been made available via earthsystemgrid.org . Examples are shown comparing the reference simulation with simulations from the CAM5 series that make different microphysical assumptions and use a different dynamical core.