ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9977-4599
Current Organisation
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-03-2022
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU22-11368
Abstract: & & The processes that govern freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS)& #8212 ice-shelf basal melting and iceberg calving& #8212 are generally poorly represented in current Earth System Models (ESMs). The processes governing ocean flows onto the Antarctic continental and into ice-shelf cavities can only be captured accurately at resolutions significantly higher than those in typical CMIP-class ESMs. The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) from the US Department of Energy supports regional refinement in all components, allowing global modeling with high resolution in regions of interest. Here, we present fully coupled results from an ocean/sea-ice mesh that has high resolution (12 km) on the Antarctic continental shelf and much of the Southern Ocean and low resolution (~30 to 60 km) over the rest of the globe. E3SM includes Antarctic ice-shelf cavities with fixed geometry and calculates ice-shelf basal melt rates from the heat and freshwater fluxes computed by the ocean component. In addition, E3SM permits prescribed forcing from a climatology of iceberg melt, providing a more realistic representation of these freshwater fluxes than found in many ESMs. With these new capabilities, E3SM version 2 produces realistic and stable ice-shelf basal melt rates across the continent. We show preliminary results of modeled ice-shelf basal melt rates across a range of Antarctic ice-shelves under pre-industrial and historical climate forcing, as well as the impacts of these added capabilities on the region& #8217 s climate. We show that the use of a mesoscale eddy parameterization, tapered with the mesh resolution, reduces biases even in the 12-km region where some eddies are resolved.& The accurate representation of these processes within a coupled ESM is an important step towards reducing uncertainties in projections of the Antarctic response to climate change and Antarctica's contribution to global sea-level rise.& &
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 17-08-2022
DOI: 10.5194/TC-2022-133
Abstract: Abstract. Antarctic Bottom Water is an important component of Earth's climate system. Its formation occurs through ocean-atmosphere-sea ice flux interactions in coastal and open ocean polynyas around Antarctica. In this paper, we investigate Antarctic dense water formation in the high-resolution version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM-HR). The model is able to reproduce the major Antarctic coastal polynyas, though they are smaller in area compared to observations. E3SM-HR also simulates several occurrences of open-ocean polynyas (OOPs) in the Weddell Sea, at a higher rate than what the last 50 years of satellite sea ice observational record suggests, but similarly to other high-resolution Earth System Model simulations. Furthermore, the densest water masses in the model are formed within the OOPs, rather than on the continental shelf, as is typically observed. Biases related to the lack of dense water formation on the continental shelf are associated with overly strong atmospheric polar easterlies, which lead to a strong Antarctic Slope Front and hence too little communication between on and off continental shelf water masses. Strong polar easterlies also produce excessive southward Ekman transport, causing a build-up of sea ice over the continental shelf and enhanced ice melting in the summer season. This in turn produces water masses on the continental shelf that are overly fresh and less dense relative to observations. Our results indicate that the large-scale polar atmospheric circulation around Antarctica must be accurately simulated in models to properly reproduce Antarctic dense water formation.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 12-2022
DOI: 10.1029/2022MS003156
Abstract: This work documents version two of the Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). E3SMv2 is a significant evolution from its predecessor E3SMv1, resulting in a model that is nearly twice as fast and with a simulated climate that is improved in many metrics. We describe the physical climate model in its lower horizontal resolution configuration consisting of 110 km atmosphere, 165 km land, 0.5° river routing model, and an ocean and sea ice with mesh spacing varying between 60 km in the mid‐latitudes and 30 km at the equator and poles. The model performance is evaluated with Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Characterization of Klima simulations augmented with historical simulations as well as simulations to evaluate impacts of different forcing agents. The simulated climate has many realistic features of the climate system, with notable improvements in clouds and precipitation compared to E3SMv1. E3SMv1 suffered from an excessively high equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) of 5.3 K. In E3SMv2, ECS is reduced to 4.0 K which is now within the plausible range based on a recent World Climate Research Program assessment. However, a number of important biases remain including a weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, deficiencies in the characteristics and spectral distribution of tropical atmospheric variability, and a significant underestimation of the observed warming in the second half of the historical period. An analysis of single‐forcing simulations indicates that correcting the historical temperature bias would require a substantial reduction in the magnitude of the aerosol‐related forcing.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 02-2022
DOI: 10.1029/2021MS002468
Abstract: The processes responsible for freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), ice‐shelf basal melting and iceberg calving, are generally poorly represented in current Earth System Models (ESMs). Here we document the cryosphere configuration of the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) v1.2. This includes simulating Antarctic ice‐shelf basal melting, which has been implemented through simulating the ocean circulation within static Antarctic ice‐shelf cavities, allowing for the ability to calculate ice‐shelf basal melt rates from the associated heat and freshwater fluxes. In addition, we added the capability to prescribe forcing from iceberg melt, allowing for realistic representation of the other dominant mass loss process from the AIS. In standard resolution simulations (using a noneddying ocean) under preindustrial climate forcing, we find high sensitivity of modeled ocean/ice shelf interactions to the ocean state, which can result in a transition to a high basal melt regime under the Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS), presenting a significant challenge to representing the ocean/ice shelf system in a coupled ESM. We show that inclusion of a spatially dependent parameterization of eddy‐induced transport reduces biases in water mass properties on the Antarctic continental shelf. With these improvements, E3SM produces realistic ice‐shelf basal melt rates across the continent that are generally within the range inferred from observations. The accurate representation of ice‐shelf basal melting within a coupled ESM is an important step toward reducing uncertainties in projections of the Antarctic response to climate change and Antarctica's contribution to global sea‐level rise.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-04-2022
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-08-2022
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 11-07-2023
Abstract: Abstract. Antarctic coastal polynyas produce dense shelf water, a primary source of Antarctic Bottom Water that contributes to the global overturning circulation. This paper investigates Antarctic dense water formation in the high-resolution version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM-HR). The model is able to reproduce the main Antarctic coastal polynyas, although the polynyas are smaller in area compared to observations. E3SM-HR also simulates several occurrences of open-ocean polynyas (OOPs) in the Weddell Sea at a higher rate than what the last 50 years of the satellite sea ice observational record suggests, but similarly to other high-resolution Earth system model simulations. Furthermore, the densest water masses in the model are formed within the OOPs rather than on the continental shelf as is typically observed. Biases related to the lack of dense water formation on the continental shelf are associated with overly strong atmospheric polar easterlies, which lead to a strong Antarctic Slope Front and too little exchange between on- and off-continental shelf water masses. Strong polar easterlies also produce excessive southward Ekman transport, causing a build-up of sea ice over the continental shelf and enhanced ice melting in the summer season. This, in turn, produces water masses on the continental shelf that are overly fresh and less dense relative to observations. Our results indicate that high resolution alone is insufficient for models to properly reproduce Antarctic dense water the large-scale polar atmospheric circulation around Antarctica must also be accurately simulated.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 12-2019
DOI: 10.1029/2019MS001870
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Milena Veneziani.