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Transient CO 2 Experiment using the ARPEGE/OPAICE non flux corrected coupled model
Author(s) -
Barthelet P.,
Terray L.,
Valcke S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/98gl51846
Subject(s) - thermohaline circulation , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , climatology , atmospheric sciences , forcing (mathematics) , climate model , ocean current , transient (computer programming) , radiative forcing , atmospheric circulation , climate change , physics , geology , oceanography , chemistry , organic chemistry , computer science , operating system
A transient CO 2 experiment using the ARPEGE/ OPAICE coupled general circulation model with no flux correction has been performed at CERFACS. Despite a warm initial climate drift, the main features of the observed climate are reasonably captured in the control simulation. In particular, the simulated oceanic circulation is satisfactory. The transient CO 2 simulation shows a global warming of 1.6°C in surface air temperature at the time of CO 2 doubling. This value and the main geographical patterns of climate change are in agreement with previous studies using either flux corrected or non flux corrected models. The absence of flux correction does not prevent the too strong atmospheric water fluxes to produce an unrealistic freshening of the upper layer of the Northern North Atlantic which leads to a reduction of the thermohaline circulation in the control simulation. As a consequence, the weakening of the thermohaline circulation in response to the anthropogenic radiative forcing is less than expected.