Modeled sensitivity of the northwestern Pacific upper-ocean responses to tropical cyclones in a fully coupled climate model with varying ocean grid resolution

Li, Hui

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/72898 Copy

Description

Title

Modeled sensitivity of the northwestern Pacific upper-ocean responses to tropical cyclones in a fully coupled climate model with varying ocean grid resolution

Author(s)

Li, Hui

Issue Date

2015-01-21

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Sriver, Ryan

Department of Study

Atmospheric Sciences

Discipline

Atmospheric Sciences

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Tropical cyclones
• Ocean heat convergence
• Earth system modeling
• atmosphere-ocean interactions

Abstract

Tropical cyclones (TCs) actively contribute to Earth's climate, but TC-climate interactions are largely unexplored in fully-coupled models. Here we analyze the upper-ocean response to TCs using a high resolution Earth system model, in which a 0.5° atmosphere is coupled to an ocean with two different horizontal resolutions: 1° and 0.1°. The model produces realistic TCs up to category 3 in both versions of the model, and, in the northwestern Pacific region, the transient surface ocean temperature response is consistent with observations. We estimate the model’s flux-adjusted TC-induced ocean heat convergence in the northwestern Pacific is ~0.26 PW and ~0.30 PW for the low and high resolution configurations, respectively, which is within the range of previous observation-based estimates. Results point to the importance of coupled modeling approaches that account for ocean-atmosphere feedbacks, in order to develop a complete understanding of the relationship between TCs and climate.

Graduation Semester

2014-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/72898

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 Hui Li

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