HR: 14:30h
AN: A23E-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Surface Fluxes and Climate Models
AU: * Large, W G
EM: wily@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr, Boulder, CO 80307, United States
AB: A clear distinction is made between surface flux requirements for climate model evaluation versus forcing, uncoupled ocean or atmospheric models versus partially or fully coupled, and finally air-sea versus air-ice versus ocean-ice fluxes. The forcing of uncoupled ocean climate models for Coordinated Ocean Research Experiments (CORE) is outlined, with emphasis on the role of satellite based data sets. The flux climatologies and inter-annual variability implied by this forcing are presented, and the meaning of model departures from these results is discussed. Focusing on air-sea fluxes, evaluation of model surface fluxes is restricted to fully coupled climate simulations, where, in principle, it could be a valuable tool in attributing model bias to one or multiple component models. Oceanic regions, such as the eastern coasts of subtropical gyres, will be identified as having particularly demanding surface flux requirements. Examples of what have proved to key, and also not so useful, metrics of model performance will be presented.
DE: 3337 Global climate models (1626, 4928)
DE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly