Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

About: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory is a facility organization based out in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Climate model & Climate change. The organization has 525 authors who have published 2432 publications receiving 264545 citations. The organization is also known as: GFDL.

Indian Ocean Dipole Response to Global Warming: Analysis of Ocean–Atmospheric Feedbacks in a Coupled Model*

Abstract: Low-frequency modulation and change under global warming of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode are investigated with a pair of multicentury integrations of a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model: one under constant climate forcing and one forced by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. In the unforced simulation, there is significant decadal and multidecadal modulation of the IOD variance. The mean thermocline depth in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EEIO) is important for the slow modulation, skewness, and ENSO correlation of the IOD. With a shoaling (deepening) of the EEIO thermocline, the thermocline feedback strengthens, and this leads to an increase in IOD variance, a reduction of the negative skewness of the IOD, and a weakening of the IOD–ENSO correlation. In response to increasing greenhouse gases, a weakening of the Walker circulation leads to easterly wind anomalies in the equatorial Indian Ocean; the oceanic response to weakened circulation is a thermocline shoal...

The Seasonal Variation of the Tropical Circulation as Simulated by a Global Model of the Atmosphere

Abstract: A mathematical model of the atmosphere with a seasonal variation of insulation and sea surface temperatures is integrated numerically with respect to time over three model years. The model has a global computational domain and a realistic distribution of mountains. It contains a highly idealized parameterization of convection, i.e., dry and moist convective adjustment. It is found that the model accurately simulates the seasonal variation of the location of the tropical rainbelt as well as that of the flow field associated with it. Over the continental regions of the model, the tropical rainbelt tends to form very close to the equator, whereas, in certain oceanic regions, it has a tendency to form away from the equator. Based upon a comparison of these results with those of another numerical experiment, it is concluded that this tendency is not due to an inherent characteristic of the rainbelt of the model to avoid the equator in oceanic regions, but rather it is due to the equatorial belt of low...

A gcss model intercomparison for a tropical squall line observed during toga-coare. I: Cloud-resolving models

Abstract: Results from eight cloud-resolving models are compared for the first time for the case of an oceanic tropical squall line observed during the Tropical Ocean/Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment There is broad agreement between all the models in describing the overall structure and propagation of the squall line and some quantitative agreement in the evolution of rainfall There is also a more qualitative agreement between the models in describing the vertical structure of the apparent heat and moisture sources The three-dimensional (3D) experiments with an active ice phase and open lateral boundary conditions along the direction of the system propagation show good agreement for all parameters The comparison of 3D simulated fields with those obtained from two different analyses of airborne Doppler radar data indicates that the 3D models are able to simulate the dynamical structure of the squall line, including the observed double-peaked updraughts However, the second updraught peak at around 10 km in height is obtained only when the ice phase is represented The 2D simulations with an ice-phase parametrization also exhibit this structure, although with a larger temporal variability In the 3D simulations, the evolution of the mean wind profile is in the sense of decreasing the shear, but the 2D simulations are unable to reproduce this behaviour