A statistical-dynamical climate model with a simple hydrology cycle

Vallis, Geoffrey K.

doi:10.1111/j.2153-3490.1982.tb01811.x

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Undoubtedly, such a local relation is imperfect and, given the presence of condensation diffusive parametrizations in general, cannot properly be justified (Vallis, 1982;O'Gorman and Schneider, 2006). Caballero and Langen (2005) and O'Gorman and in fact found somewhat complicated behaviour in the hydrological cycle as climate changes, and Pierrehumbert et al (2006) provide a discussion of the general issue.…”

Section: Atmospheric Heat Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meridional energy transport in the coupled atmosphere–ocean system: scaling and numerical experiments

Vallis

Farneti

2009

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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ABSTRACT:We explore meridional energy transfer in the coupled atmosphere-ocean system, with a focus on the extratropics. We present various elementary scaling arguments for the partitioning of the energy transfer between atmosphere and ocean, and illustrate those arguments by numerical experimentation. The numerical experiments are designed to explore the effects of changing various properties of the ocean (its size, geometry and diapycnal diffusivity), the atmosphere (its water vapour content) and the forcing of the system (the distribution of incoming solar radiation and the rotation rate of the planet). We find that the energy transport associated with wind-driven ocean gyres is closely coupled to the energy transport of the midlatitude atmosphere so that, for example, the heat transport of both systems scales in approximately the same way with the meridional temperature gradient in midlatitudes. On the other hand, the deep circulation of the ocean is not tightly coupled with the atmosphere and its energy transport varies in a different fashion.Although for present-day conditions the atmosphere transports more energy polewards than does the ocean, we find that a wider or more diffusive ocean is able to transport more energy than the atmosphere. The polewards energy transport of the ocean is smaller in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere; this arises because of the effects of a circumpolar channel on the deep overturning circulation. The atmosphere is able to compensate for changes in oceanic heat transport due to changes in diapycnal diffusivity or geometry, but we find that the compensation is not perfect. We also find that the transports of both atmosphere and ocean decrease if the planetary rotation rate increases substantially, indicating that there is no a priori constraint on the total meridional heat transport in the coupled system.

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Section: Atmospheric Heat Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meridional energy transport in the coupled atmosphere–ocean system: scaling and numerical experiments

Vallis

Farneti

2009

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…Finally the eddy momentum flux divergence is obtained after Green (1970). The parametrization conserves the global conservation of angular momentum as in Vallis (1982). To keep the atmospheric model as simple as possible, the grey atmosphere radiation scheme of Saravanan and McWilliams (1995) was used.…”

Section: Atmospheric Componentmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origin of interdecadal oscillations in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model

Arzel

Verdière

Huck

2007

Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

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A B S T R A C TInterdecadal oscillations are analysed in a coupled ocean-atmosphere model made of a planetary geostrophic ocean model within an idealized geometry, coupled to a zonally-averaged tropospheric atmosphere model. The interdecadal variability that arises spontaneously in this coupled system is caused by intrinsic ocean dynamics, the coupled air-sea feedbacks being not essential. The spatial pattern of the variability bears some resemblance with observations and results obtained with atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) as well as simpler climate models: large and quasi-stationary upper ocean temperature-dominated density anomalies are found in the north-western part of the ocean basin along with weaker, westward propagating anomalies in the remaining interior. The basic physical mechanism that lies at the heart of the existence of the interdecadal mode is a large-scale baroclinic instability of the oceanic mean flow in the vicinity of the western boundary, characteristic of ocean models forced by constant surface fluxes. Freshwater feedbacks associated with the hydrological cycle are found to have only a modest influence on the interdecadal mode. The presence of a periodic channel mimicking the Antarctic Circumpolar Current at high southern latitudes prevents the oceanic baroclinic instability to occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

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“…In the spirit of Stone (1972) and Vallis (1980Vallis ( , 1982, " h is determined by the zonally averaged thermodynamic energy equation for the atmosphere:…”

Section: Atmospheric Heat Balance: Potential Temperature Equationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exchange of heat and momentum between the atmosphere and the ocean: a minimal model of decadal oscillations

Gallego

Cessi

2000

Climate Dynamics

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A model of the large-scale interaction between the troposphere and the upper ocean, wind-driven circulation is formulated. Simpli®ed parametrizations, built upon the conservation of global heat and momentum, relate the atmospheric eddy heat and momentum uxes to the zonally averaged oceanic and atmospheric temperatures. The formulation shows that the winddriven circulation in¯uences the winds by controlling the strength of the oceanic northward heat transport, and thus the atmospheric northward heat transport and temperature distribution. Because the ocean takes decades to adjust to changes in the winds, the coupled system equilibrates into a state which is periodic in time, rather than steady. The period is linearly proportional to the transit time of long Rossby waves across the basin, and thus is of the order of decades for largescale basins.

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A statistical-dynamical climate model with a simple hydrology cycle

Cited by 15 publications

References 40 publications

Meridional energy transport in the coupled atmosphere–ocean system: scaling and numerical experiments

Meridional energy transport in the coupled atmosphere–ocean system: scaling and numerical experiments

On the origin of interdecadal oscillations in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model

Exchange of heat and momentum between the atmosphere and the ocean: a minimal model of decadal oscillations

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