This paper presents a description of the CESM/DART ensemble coupled data assimilation (DA) system based on the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) assimilation software. The CESM/DART should be viewed as a flexible system to support the DA needs of the CESM research community and not as a static reanalysis product. In this implementation of the CESM/DART, conventional insitu observations of the ocean and atmosphere are assimilated into the respective component models of the CESM using a 30‐member ensemble adjustment Kalman filter (EAKF). CESM/DART is run in a “weakly coupled” configuration wherein observations native to each climate system component only directly impact the state vector for that component. Information is passed between components indirectly through the short‐term coupled model forecasts that provide the EAKF background ensemble. This system leverages previous ensemble DA development for the Community Atmosphere Model and Parallel Ocean Program models using the DART EAKF. The CESM/DART project is a step towards providing increasingly useful DA capabilities for the CESM research community. Results are presented for our prototype 12‐year reanalysis, run from 1970 to mid 1982. Multiple lines of evidence demonstrate that the system is capable of constraining the CESM coupled model to simulate the historical variability of the climate system in the well‐observed Northern Hemisphere. A collection of monthly average variables, climate mode indices, observation diagnostics and snapshots of synoptic weather in the ocean and atmosphere are compared to established datasets, showing especially good agreement in the Northern Hemisphere. A discussion of the CESM/DART as a modular, community facility and the benefits and challenges associated with this vision is also included.

Data from the HIgh Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS), the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) are used to investigate the annual variation of total column ozone in high northern latitudes. Downward transport of ozone-rich air by the residual mean circulation during autumn and winter bends ozone isopleths down and increases the high-latitude ozone amounts, leading to an ozone maximum at the end of the winter. During the summer months eddy mixing acts to restore pre-fall distributions of ozone. In this study the large-scale mixing in the lower stratosphere is analyzed using Nakamura's (1996) equivalent length formulation with observed and simulated ozone. The analysis of ozone mixing is performed in the tracer equivalent latitude-potential temperature coordinate system. Steep latitudinal gradients of ozone isopleths below about 500 K occur during the winter, where there are minima in the equivalent length, indicating barriers to mixing at 30°N-40°N. This transport barrier allows large ozone maxima to develop poleward of it. The barrier disappears over the summer, permitting latitudinal mixing of the high ozone air. Above 500 K mixing is more effective during the winter, so a large winter maximum does not occur. In both midlatitude and high latitude the lower stratospheric layer from 330 to 500 K doubles its ozone content from autumn to spring, compared with much smaller changes in the layer from 500 to 650 K. Our results confirm that the presence of the winter transport barrier in the lower stratosphere controls the seasonal variation of total ozone.

<p>The paper presents analysis and interpretation of observed perturbations of global wave dynamics in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere (ITM) during the recent mid-winter Arctic Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) events under solar minimum (2009, 2010, 2018, and 2019), transition to solar maximum (2012) and solar maximum (2013) conditions of the Solar Cycle 24. Employing the 116-level configuration of the thermosphere extension of Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCMX-116L), constrained by the meteorological troposphere-stratosphere analyses of Goddard Earth Observing System, version 5 (GEOS-5) of Global Modeling and Data Assimilation Office, we study and characterize the striking amplifications of the solar thermal semidiurnal tide, as one of the main drivers of the ITM variability, after onsets of major and minor SSW events. The dominance and growth of the semidiurnal tide over the diurnal and terdiurnal modes in the lower thermosphere above ~100 km are typical features of the tidal dynamics during major SSW events of the Solar Cycle 24 as suggested by model predictions. The growth of the semidiurnal tidal mode during SSW events is also supported by observational analysis of diurnal cycles from temperature space-borne observations (SABER/TIMED). In the vertical domain of the meteor radar observations at the Southern extra-tropics and low latitudes the model and data revealed the systematic presence of the strong quasi two-day wave wind oscillations that prevail over the tidal winds between 80 and 100 km during mid-January SSW events. In the high and middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere model simulations are capable to reproduce the day-to-day variability of tidal and PW oscillations deduced from satellite temperature data. The self-consistent whole atmosphere predictions of global-scale components of neutral dynamics (prevailing winds, planetary waves and tides) become important factor to reproduce and forecast the perturbed state of the ITM as observed from the ground and the space during SSW events of the Solar Cycle 24. The SSW-driven global perturbations of tides can significantly change diurnal cycles of the plasma in the low-latitude and extra-tropical E-region of the ionosphere as will be briefly illustrated by day-day variations of observed and simulated total electron content and plasma drifts.</p>

<p>The impact of the stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillations (QBO) and Semi-Annual Oscillations (SAO) and physics of gravity waves (GW) on the dynamics and transport in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) has been examined in simulations of two Whole Atmosphere Models (WAM and WACCM-X) during the last decade. In the low-latitude MLT the year-to-year variations of the diurnal tide amplitudes and mean flow of whole atmosphere simulations constrained below 40 km by reanalysis data are in the good agreement with the observed interannual variability. The Mar-Apr diurnal tide amplitudes simulated by models display the observed enhancements (~50-100%) of amplitudes during the westerly QBO years. The observed influence of QBO and SAO on the tidal dynamics in the MLT is well captured by simulations that are capable to reproduce the global and regional tidal variability deduced from the space-borne and ground-based measurements of temperature and winds. Comparisons between simulations and observations, along with the model sensitivity studies highlight needs to quantify and constrain impact of mesoscale GW dynamics and physics in whole atmosphere predictions.</p>