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Configuration and spin-up of ACCESS-CM2, the new generation Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator Coupled Model

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journal contribution
posted on 2024-11-21, 00:59 authored by D Bi, M Dix, S Marsland, S O'Farrell, A Sullivan, R Bodman, R Law, I Harman, J Srbinovsky, HA Rashid, P Dobrohotoff, C Mackallah, H Yan, A Hirst, Abhishek Savita, FB Boeira Dias, M Woodhouse, R Fiedler, A Heerdegen

A new version of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator coupled model, ACCESS-CM2, has been developed for a wide range of climate modelling research and applications. In particular, ACCESS-CM2 is one of Australia’s contributions to the World Climate Research Programme’s Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). Compared with the ACCESS1.3 model used for our CMIP5 submission, all model components have been upgraded as well as the coupling framework (OASIS3-MCT) and experiment control system (Rose/Cylc). The component models are: UM10.6 GA7.1 for the atmosphere, CABLE2.5 for the land surface, MOM5 for the ocean, and CICE5.1.2 for the sea ice. This paper describes the model configuration of ACCESS-CM2, documents the experimental set up, and assesses the model performance for the preindustrial spin-up simulation in comparison against (reconstructed) observations and ACCESS1.3 results. While the performance of the two generations of the ACCESS coupled model is largely comparable, ACCESS-CM2 shows better global hydrological balance, more realistic ocean water properties (in terms of spatial distribution) and meridional overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean but a poorer simulation of the Antarctic sea ice and a larger energy imbalance at the top of atmosphere. This energy imbalance reflects a noticeable warming trend of the global ocean over the spin-up period.

History

Publication title

Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science

Volume

70

Issue

1

Pagination

225-251

ISSN

2206-5865

Department/School

Oceans and Cryosphere, IMAS Directorate, Australian Antarctic Program Partnership

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Publication status

  • Published

Place of publication

Australia

Rights statement

Copyright 2020 BoM CC BY-NC-ND

Socio-economic Objectives

190501 Climate change models

UN Sustainable Development Goals

13 Climate Action