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| Spring Cold Bias of SST and Minimal Wind Mixing in the Equatorial Pacific Cold Tongue |
| LIN Peng-Fei,LIU Hai-Long,LI Chao,ZHANG Xue-Hong |
| State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China,State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China,State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China,State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China |
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Abstract The authors investigate the relationship between bias in simulated sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial eastern Pacific cold tongue during the boreal spring as simulated by an oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) and minimal wind mixing (MWM) at the surface. The cold bias of simulated SST is greatest during the boreal spring, at approximately 3°C. A sensitivity experiment reducing MWM by one order of magnitude greatly alleviates cold biases, especially in March-April. The decrease in bias is primarily due to weakened vertical mixing, which preserves heat in the uppermost layer and results in warmer simulated SST. The reduction in vertical mixing also leads to a weak westward current in the upper layer, which further contributes to warmer SST estimates. These findings imply that there are large uncertainties about simple model parameters such as MWM at the oceanic surface.
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Received: 10 November 2010
Revised: 12 November 2010
Accepted: 15 November 2010
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