Research Highlights November 2010 : Donner et al.
Study by Donner and co-authors on The Dynamical Core, Physical Parameterizations, and Basic Simulation Characteristics of the Atmospheric Component of the GFDL Global Coupled Model CM3
The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) has developed a coupled general circulation model (CM3) for atmosphere, oceans, land, and sea ice. The goal of CM3 is to address emerging issues in climate change, including aerosol-cloud interactions, chemistry-climate interactions, and coupling between the troposphere and stratosphere. The model is also designed to serve as the physical-system component of earth-system models and models for decadal prediction in the near-term future, for example, through improved simulations in tropical land precipitation relative to earlier-generation GFDL models. This paper describes the dynamical core, physical parameterizations, and basic simulation characteristics of the atmospheric component (AM3) of this model.
AM3 simulates Antarctic ozone hole: GFDL's next-generation atmospheric general circulation model, AM3, simulates the ozone hole in generally good agreement with observations from the TOMS satellite. Note the reduction in total column ozone at the end of winter in the Antarctic in both AM3 and the TOMS observations. AM3 also simulates the observed reduction in ozone at the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere in the Arctic. Full details in Donner et al. (2010, J. Climate, in revision)
