Climate Dynamics Group
 at the University of California, Santa Cruz

The poleward transport of energy by atmospheric and oceanic circulations plays a fundamental role in many characteristics of Earth’s climate including climatological patterns of temperature and precipitation, their variability, and their changes in the future. We analyze the ways in which models are potentially biased relative to observations in their energy transport–specifically in the partitioning between atmosphere and ocean and in trends over the historical period–and the role of sub-seasonal variability in driving extreme heating events such as heat waves. Through this work, we develop a process-level understanding of the model physics at the global scale in order to assess the robustness of projected changes in energy transport and their climate impacts. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation under Award 2311541.

CMIP7 data request: Ocean and sea ice priorities and opportunities
  • Baylor Fox-Kemper
  • Patricia DeRepentigny
  • Anne Marie Treguier
  • Christian Stepanek
  • Eleanor O’Rourke
  • Chloe Mackallah
  • Alberto Meucci
  • Yevgeny Aksenov
  • Paul J. Durack
  • Nicole Feldl
  • Oluwayemi Garuba
  • Vanessa Hernaman
  • Céline Heuzé
  • Doroteaciro Iovino
  • Gaurav Madan
  • André L. Marquez
  • François Massonnet
  • Jenny Mecking
  • Dhrubajyoti Samanta
  • Patrick C. Taylor
  • Wan-Ling Tseng
  • Martin Vancoppenolle

The ocean and sea ice are central to Earth’s climate system, influencing global heat and carbon cycles, weather patterns, and sea level rise. Recent decades have seen rapid advances in Earth System Models (ESMs), but limitations remain in simulating and comparing key oceanic and cryospheric processes across models. A recurring challenge in model intercomparison efforts like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is determining the output variables that best represent essential mechanisms while remaining manageable in volume and complexity. Here we present the CMIP7 ocean and sea ice data request, developed through an international, community-based process to prioritize variables for model output. We identify seven opportunities – science-based use cases spanning ocean and cryosphere drivers and responses, paleoclimate, polar amplification, extremes, wind waves, and rapid... read more →

An energetic perspective on heatwaves using a fixed atmospheric mass calculation of instantaneous atmospheric heat flux convergence
  • Aaron Donohoe
  • Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth
  • Nicole Feldl

The atmospheric energy budget associated with the heating and cooling of the atmosphere on daily time scales across the globe is analyzed using a fixed atmospheric mass calculation of the instantaneous atmospheric heat flux convergence. The heating and moistening of the atmospheric column during a typical heating event requires of order 1000 W m−2 of energy input to the atmosphere. The required energy input is predominantly provided by the atmospheric heat transport convergence. In contrast, the temporal variability of energy inputs by surface turbulent fluxes and radiation are an order of magnitude smaller. This result suggests that the atmospheric temperature variability is set by the magnitude of variability in lateral energy fluxes in the atmosphere, limited by the heat capacity of the atmosphere, and provides... read more →