The seamless and multi-model coupling between atmosphere, land, hydrology, ocean, waves and sea-ice models based on SURFEX surface model using OASIS3-MCT

This study presents the principles of the new coupling interface based on the SURFEX multi-surface model and the OASIS3-MCT coupler. As SURFEX can be plugged into several atmospheric models, it can be used in a wide range of applications, from global and regional coupled climate systems to high-resolution Numerical Weather Prediction systems or very fine scale systems dedicated to process studies. The objective of this development is to build and share a common structure for all these applications for the atmosphere-surface coupling, between atmospheric models and ocean, ice, hydrology, and wave models. The numerical and physical principles of the SURFEX interface between the different component models are described, and the different coupled systems into which the SURFEX OASIS3-MCT-based coupling interface is already applied are presented.