SO-CHIC WorkPackage 5

Impact on the coupled climate system

Objectives

This WP will seek to determine the impact of polynya and other Weddell Sea-scale events on the weather and climate and potential feedbacks on the characteristics of the polynia. Specifically, we will:

1. Investigate the atmospheric response, regionally and globally, to the emergence of polynya in the Weddell sector
2. Evaluate sources of bias in the representation of polynya dynamics in current and new generations of global climate models
3. Quantify the effects of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks on the evaluation/characteristics of the polynya
4. Evaluate the capability of current climate models to represent polynya dynamics, and especially the resolution dependence

We will investigate the impact of polynya on global weather and climate in the atmosphere and ocean with a suite of atmosphere-only and coupled climate model which can readily represent polynya dynamics. This will be achieved by using very high resolution of the atmosphere and using climate model with a nested ocean grid refinement.

Tasks

• Task 5.0: Scientific Coordination [Lead: W. Park (GEOMAR); participant: D. Ferreira (UREAD)]
• Task 5.1: Evaluating the global and regional atmospheric response to the polynia opening [Lead: D. Ferreira (UREAD); participant: W. Park (GEOMAR)]
• Task 5.2: Variability and future change of the polynya and implied global teleconnections [Lead: W. Park (GEOMAR); participant: D. Ferreira (UREAD)]
• Task 5.3: Evaluating the capabilities of the new generation of climate models using PRIMAVERA project [Lead: D. Ferreira (UREAD); participant: W. Park (GEOMAR)]

Partners

WP leaders: W. Park (GEOMAR, lead) and D. Ferreira, (UREAD, co-lead)