The El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation cycle simulated by the climate system model of Chinese Academy of Sciences

On the basis of more than 200-year control run, the performance of the climate system model of Chinese Academy of Sciences （CAS-ESM-C） in simulating the E1 Nifio-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） cycle is evalu- ated, including the onset, development and decay of the ENSO. It is shown that, the model can reasonably simulate the annual cycle and interannual variability of sea surface temperature （SST） in the tropical Pacif- ic, as well as the seasonal phase-locking of the ENSO. The model also captures two prerequisites for the E1 Nino onset, i.e., a westerly anomaly and a warm SST anomaly in the equatorial western Pacific. Owing to too strong forcing from an extratropical meridional wind, however, the westerly anomaly in this region is largely overestimated. Moreover, the simulated thermocline is much shallower with a weaker slope. As a result, the warm SST anomaly from the western Pacific propagates eastward more quickly, leading to a faster develop- ment of an E1 Nino. During the decay stage, owing to a stronger E1Nino in the model, the secondary Gill-type response of the tropical atmosphere to the eastern Pacific warming is much stronger, thereby resulting in a persistent easterly anomaly in the western Pacific. Meanwhile, a cold anomaly in the warm pool appears as a result of a lifted thermocline via Ekman pumping. Finally, an E1 Nino decays into a La Nina through their interactions. In addition, the shorter period and larger amplitude of the ENSO in the model can be attribut- ed to a shallower thermocline in the equatorial Pacific, which speeds up the zonal redistribution of a heat content in the upper ocean.

An Assessment of CAMS-CSM in Simulating Land–Atmosphere Heat and Water Exchanges

The Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences(CAMS)has been devoted to developing a climate system model(CSM)to meet demand for climate simulation and prediction for the East Asian region.In this study,we evaluated the performance of CAMS-CSM in regard to sensible heat flux(H),latent heat flux(LE),surface temperature,soil moisture,and snow depth,focusing on the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project experiment,with the aim of participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6.We systematically assessed the simulation results achieved by CAMS-CSM for these variables against various reference products and ground observations,including the FLUXNET model tree ensembles H and LE data,Climate Prediction Center soil moisture data,snow depth climatology data,and Chinese ground observations of snow depth and winter surface temperature.We compared these results with data from the ECMWF Interim reanalysis(ERA-Interim)and Global Land Data Assimilation System(GLDAS).Our results indicated that CAMS-CSM simulations were better than or comparable to ERA-Interim reanalysis for snow depth and winter surface temperature at regional scales,but slightly worse when simulating total column soil moisture.The root-mean-square differences of H in CAMS-CSM were all greater than those from the ERA-Interim reanalysis,but less than or comparable to those from GLDAS.The spatial correlations for H in CAMS-CSM were the lowest in nearly all regions,except for North America.CAMS-CSM LE produced the lowest bias in Siberia,North America,and South America,but with the lowest spatial correlation coefficients.Therefore,there are still scopes for improving H and LE simulations in CAMS-CSM,particularly for LE.