Langmuir and mesoscale and submesoscale and bears, oh my! Assessing process impacts on climate

Baylor Fox-Kemper, Brown University, Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Providence, United States, Steven C Clemens, Brown University, Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Providence, RI, United States, Leah Johnson, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, Qing Li, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, United States, Arin Nelson, University of Colorado at Boulder, Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, Patrick Orenstein, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States and Brodie Pearson, Brown University, Geological Sciences, Providence, RI, United States
Abstract:
Under anthropogenic change, the ocean is the reservoir of anomalous energy and much of the anomalous carbon. Over days, seasons, and decades these anomalies make their way into the ocean aided along the way by a variety of processes.

In models, the smaller of these processes are parameterized. The response of models to forcing is a result of the parameterizations together with the resolved and numerical aspects.

This presentation will present some techniques for quantifying the effects of processes through parameterizations--which affect the mean, the low-frequency response, the high-frequency response, and the prediction skill of models. Examples illustrating the role of Langmuir, submesoscale, and mesoscale parameterizations, as well as what goes wrong when forcing is altered so that relevant processes cannot keep up, will be presented.

Back to: Ocean Transport and Eddy Energy IV Posters