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Global and regional water cycle includes precipitation, water vapor divergence, and change of column water vapor in the atmosphere, and land surface evapotranspiration, terrestrial water storage change, and river discharge, which is linked to ocean salinity near the river mouth. The water cycle is a crucial component of the Earth system, and numerous studies have addressed its individual components (e.g., precipitation). Here we assess, for the first time, if remote sensing and reanalysis datasets can accurately and self-consistently portray the Amazon water cycle. This is further assisted with satellite ocean salinity measurements near the mouth of the Amazon River. The widely used practice of taking the mean of an ensemble of datasets to represent water cycle components (e.g., precipitation) can produce large biases in water cycle closure. Closure is achieved with only a small subset of data combinations (e.g., ERA5 precipitation and evapotranspiration plus GRACE satellite terrestrial water storage), which rules out the lower precipitation and higher evapotranspiration estimates, providing valuable constraints on assessments of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and their ratio. The common approach of using the Óbidos stream gauge (located hundreds of kilometers from the river mouth) multiplied by a constant (1.25) to represent the entire Amazon discharge is found to misrepresent the seasonal cycle, and this can affect the apparent influence of Amazon discharge on tropical Atlantic salinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines systematic biases in sea surface temperature (SST) under the stratus cloud deck in the southeast Pacific Ocean and upper-ocean processes relevant to the SST biases in 19 coupled general circulation models (CGCMs) participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). The 20 years of simulations from each model are analyzed. Pronounced warm SST biases in a large portion of the southeast Pacific stratus region are found in all models. Processes that could contribute to the SST biases are examined in detail based on the computation of major terms in the upper-ocean heat budget. Negative biases in net surface heat fluxes are evident in most of the models, suggesting that the cause of the warm SST biases in models is not explained by errors in net surface heat fluxes. Biases in heat transport by Ekman currents largely contribute to the warm SST biases both near the coast and the open ocean. In the coastal area, southwestward Ekman currents and upwelling in most models are much weaker than observed owing to weaker alongshore winds, resulting in insufficient advection of cold water from the coast. In the open ocean, warm advection due to Ekman currents is overestimated in models because of the larger meridional temperature gradient, the smaller zonal temperature gradient, and overly weaker Ekman currents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent observation has shown that the dominant mode of the net freshwater flux variations over the North Atlantic Ocean is the significant trend of freshwater loss over the Gulf Stream region and its extension. In this paper, the coupled ocean--atmosphere response to this freshwater flux change is investigated based on a series of the Fast Ocean--Atmosphere Model coupled-model experiments. The model demonstrates that the freshwater loss over the Gulf Stream and its extension region directly forces an anomalous cyclonic gyre and triggers a SST dipole with cooling in the western subtropical and warming in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic. The freshwater loss also forces a significant response in the atmosphere with a negative NAO-like response in early winter and a basin-scale ridge resembling the eastern Atlantic mode (EAM) in late winter. The salinification also strengthens the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and thus the poleward heat transport, leading to tropical cooling. The freshwater loss over the Gulf Stream and its extension also leads to an El Niñño--like warming in the tropical Pacific and cooling in the North Pacific, similar to the responses in previous water-hosing experiments with an input of freshwater in the subpolar North Atlantic. The tropical Pacific responses subsequently strengthen the Northern Hemispheric atmospheric anomalies in early winter, but reverse them in late winter through an emanation of Rossby wave trains. Overall, the tropical Pacific air--sea coupling plays a damping role, while local air--sea coupling tends to enhance the ocean and atmospheric responses over the North Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced decadal variability in sea surface temperature (SST) centered on the Kuroshio Extension (KE) has been found in the Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3) as well as in other coupled climate models. This decadal peak has higher energy than is found in nature, almost twice as large in some cases. While previous analyses have concentrated on the mechanisms for such decadal variability in coupled models, an analysis of the causes of excessive SST response to changes in wind stress has been missing. Here, a detailed comparison of the relationships between interannual changes in SST and sea surface height (SSH) as a proxy for geostrophic surface currents in the region in both CCSM3 and observations, and how these relationships depend on the mean ocean circulation, temperature, and salinity, is made. We use observationally based climatological temperature and salinity fields as well as satellite-based SSH and SST fields for comparison. The primary cause for the excessive SST variability is the coincidence of the mean KE with the region of largest SST gradients in the model. In observations, these two regions are separated by almost 500 km. In addition, the too shallow surface oceanic mixed layer in March north of the KE in the subarctic Pacific contributes to the biases. These biases are not unique to CCSM3 and suggest that mean biases in current, temperature, and salinity structures in separated western boundary current regions can exert a large influence on the size of modeled decadal SST variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unphysical virtual salt flux (VSF) formulation widely used in the ocean component of climate models has the potential to cause systematic and significant biases in modeling the climate system and projecting its future evolution. Here a freshwater flux (FWF) and a virtual salt flux version of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Model version 2.1 (GFDL CM2.1) are used to evaluate and quantify the uncertainties induced by the VSF formulation. Both unforced and forced runs with the two model versions are performed and compared in detail. It is found that the differences between the two versions are generally small or statistically insignificant in the unforced control runs and in the runs with a small external forcing. In response to a large external forcing, however, some biases in the VSF version become significant, especially the responses of regional salinity and global sea level. However, many fundamental aspects of the responses differ only quantitatively between the two versions. An unexpected result is the distinctly different ENSO responses. Under a strong external freshwater forcing, the great enhancement of the ENSO variability simulated by the FWF version does not occur in the VSF version and is caused by the overexpansion of the top model layer. In summary, the principle assumption behind using virtual salt flux is not seriously violated and the VSF model has the ability to simulate the current climate and project near-term climate evolution. For some special studies such as a large hosing experiment, however, both the VSF formulation and the use of the FWF in the geopotential coordinate ocean model could have some deficiencies and one should be cautious to avoid them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of freshwater forcing from river discharge into the Indian Ocean on oceanic vertical structure and the Indian monsoons are investigated using a fully coupled, high-resolution, regional climate model. The effect of river discharge is included in the model by restoring sea surface salinity (SSS) toward observations. The simulations with and without this effect in the coupled model reveal a highly seasonal influence of salinity and the barrier layer (BL) on oceanic vertical density stratification, which is in turn linked to changes in sea surface temperature (SST), surface winds, and precipitation. During both boreal summer and winter, SSS relaxation leads to a more realistic spatial distribution of salinity and the BL in the model. In summer, the BL in the Bay of Bengal enhances the upper-ocean stratification and increases the SST near the river mouths where the freshwater forcing is largest. However, the warming is limited to the coastal ocean and the amplitude is not large enough to give a significant impact on monsoon rainfall. The strengthened BL during boreal winter leads to a shallower mixed layer. Atmospheric heat flux forcing acting on a thin mixed layer results in an extensive reduction of SST over the northern Indian Ocean. Relatively suppressed mixing below the mixed layer warms the subsurface layer, leading to a temperature inversion. The cooling of the sea surface induces a large-scale adjustment in the winter atmosphere with amplified northeasterly winds. This impedes atmospheric convection north of the equator while facilitating it in the austral summer intertropical convergence zone, resulting in a hemispheric-asymmetric response pattern. Overall, the results suggest that freshwater forcing from the river discharges plays an important role during the boreal winter by affecting SST and the coupled ocean–atmosphere interaction, with potential impacts on the broadscale regional climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Great Salinity Anomalies” (GSAs) have been observed to propagate around the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. Similar anomalies occur in the Third Hadley Centre Coupled Atmosphere–Ocean GCM (HadCM3) of preindustrial climate. It has been hypothesized that these salinity anomalies result from the advection of anomalously low salinity waters around the subpolar gyre. Here, the consequences of using passive tracers in the HadCM3 climate model to tag the anomalously low salinity water associated with a GSA in the Greenland and Labrador Seas are reported. Rather than predominantly advecting around the modeled subpolar gyre in accordance with the upper-ocean salinity anomaly, the tracers mix to intermediate depths, before becoming incorporated into the model's North Atlantic Deep Water. Horizontal advection of the tracer in the upper ocean is limited to around 1000 km, compared with the gyre-scale propagation of the salinity anomalies. It is concluded that GSAs are unlikely to be caused by the advection of salinity anomalies; rather anomalous oceanic currents or surface fluxes are responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]