Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2019, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (5): 52-67.doi: 10.11978/2019002CSTR: 32234.14.2019002

• Marine Meteorology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Deficiency of CMIP5 models in simulating changes of Pacific Walker circulation in recent three decades: the role of Sea Surface Temperature *

Shuheng LIN1,2,Yuping GUAN1,2,4(),Banglin ZHANG3   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography (South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Regional Numerical Weather Prediction, Institute of Tropical and Marine Meteorology, Guangzhou 510640, China
    4. Zhuhai Joint Innovative Center for Climate-Environment-Ecosystem, Zhuhai 519078, China
  • Received:2019-01-01 Revised:2019-02-27 Online:2019-09-20 Published:2019-10-09
  • Contact: Yuping GUAN E-mail:guan@scsio.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Plan Project(2018YFC1506903);National Natural Science Key Fund Project(41830538);Independent project of State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography(South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)(LTOZZ1802)

Abstract:

The Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) is the most important atmospheric system over the tropical Pacific Ocean, and the cause of the long-term change of the PWC in response to global warming still remains debatable. The observations consistently indicate that the PWC has significantly strengthened in the past three decades. We examine the changes of the PWC in 18 climate models participated in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Most CMIP5 models have produced successful simulations for the climatological spatial distribution features of the PWC, but no one can simulate the trend of significant enhancement of the PWC as observed. The deficiency of the models to simulate the trend of the PWC depends mainly on the capability of the models to simulate changes in sea surface temperature (SST). The trend pattern of SST is similar to that of the observation (i.e., La Niña-like) in the coupled models that simulate a strengthening PWC, but there are still some differences between the two. However, the distribution of SST shows an El Niño-like trend pattern in the coupled models that simulate a weakening PWC, which does not match that of the observation. For the latter models, if the observed SST is used to drive its corresponding atmospheric models, it can simulate the enhancement of the PWC, which fully demonstrates the leading role of SST change in the long-term change of the PWC. Therefore, to reasonably predict the change of the PWC in the context of global warming, the CMIP5 models need to improve their simulation capability for SST changes in the tropical Pacific.

Key words: CMIP5, Walker circulation, AMIP simulation, SST trend pattern

CLC Number: 

  • P732.64