WHOI PO

Title: Using a climate model hierarchy to quantify the role of wind driven ocean circulation in climate variability and change
Abstract: Ocean circulation has crucial impacts on climate, including by lending predictability to sea surface temperatures (SSTs), taking up and redistributing heat, and altering regional weather patterns. Extensive previous work has investigated the total role of ocean circulation, or the role of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), on climate. However, the role of the wind stress driven component of ocean circulation on climate variability and change is less well understood. We designed and ran a coupled model hierarchy within the Community Earth System Climate Model version 2 (CESM2) to rigorously quantify this component. I will present results showing that wind driven ocean dynamics enhance SST persistence globally, that wind driven ocean circulation amplifies the rate of global warming by 17% over the historical period, and that a wind driven feedback on AMOC decline exists within CESM2. All data are available on NCAR's high performance computer and I will gladly share data with anyone who is interested in further analyses.