The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Description and Results at High Resolution
Abstract
This study provides an overview of the coupled high‐resolution Version 1 of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1) and documents the characteristics of a 50‐year‐long high‐resolution control simulation with time‐invariant 1950 forcings following the HighResMIP protocol. In terms of global root‐mean‐squared error metrics, this high‐resolution simulation is generally superior to results from the low‐resolution configuration of E3SMv1 (due to resolution, tuning changes, and possibly initialization procedure) and compares favorably to models in the CMIP5 ensemble. Ocean and sea ice simulation is particularly improved, due to better resolution of bathymetry, the ability to capture more variability and extremes in winds and currents, and the ability to resolve mesoscale ocean eddies. The largest improvement in this regard is an ice‐free Labrador Sea, which is a major problem at low resolution. Interestingly, several features found to improve with resolution in previous studies are insensitive to resolution or even degrade in E3SMv1. Most notable in this regard are warm bias and associated stratocumulus deficiency in eastern subtropical oceans and lack of improvement in El Niño. Another major finding of this study is that resolution increase had negligible impact on climate sensitivity (measured by net feedback determined through uniform +4K prescribed sea surface temperature increase) and aerosol sensitivity. Cloud response to resolution increase consisted of very minor decrease at all levels. Large‐scale patterns of precipitation bias were also relatively unaffected by grid spacing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2019ms001870
Entities
People
- Andrew Roberts
- Azamat Mametjanov
- David C. Bader
- Hailong Wang
- Hong‐yi Li
- Jean-Christophe Golaz
- Jonathan D. Wolfe
- Kai Zhang
- L. Ruby Leung
- Lu Dong
- Luke Van Roekel
- Marielle Pinheiro
- Mark A. Taylor
- Mathew E. Maltrud
- Milena Veneziani
- Noel D. Keen
- Paul Ullrich
- Peter Caldwell
- Philip J Cameron-Smith
- Qi Tang
- Qing Li
- RIchard Neale
- Robert L. Jacob
- Shaocheng Xie
- Stephen A. Klein
- Tian Zhou
- Wuyin Lin
- Xiaohong Liu
- Yan Feng
- Yang Yang
- Yun Qian
- Yuying Zhang
- karthik balaguru
Organizations
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Sandia National Laboratories
- United States Army Command and General Staff College
- University of California, Davis
- University of Houston