Enhanced upper ocean warming projected by the eddy-resolving Community Earth System Model

Ocean warming is a key factor impacting future changes in climate. Here we investigate vertical structure changes in globally averaged ocean heat content (OHC) in high- (HR) and low-resolution (LR) future climate simulations with the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Compared with observation-based estimates, the simulated OHC anomalies in the upper 700 and 2,000 m during 1960-2020 are more realistic in CESM-HR than -LR. Under RCP8.5 scenario, the net surface heat into the ocean is very similar in CESM-HR and -LR. However, CESM-HR has a larger increase in OHC in the upper 250 m compared to CESM-LR, but a smaller increase below 250 m. This difference can be traced to differences in eddy-induced vertical heat transport between CESM-HR and -LR in the historical period. Moreover, our results suggest that with the same heat input, upper-ocean warming is likely to be underestimated by most non-eddy-resolving climate models.

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Author Xu, G.
Chang, P.
Small, R. Justin
Danabasoglu, Gokhan
Yeager, Stephen
Ramachandran, S.
Zhang, Q.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2023-11-16T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T15:12:43.722307
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26725
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Xu, G., Chang, P., Small, R. Justin, Danabasoglu, Gokhan, Yeager, Stephen, Ramachandran, S., Zhang, Q.. (2023). Enhanced upper ocean warming projected by the eddy-resolving Community Earth System Model. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7vt1x5z. Accessed 01 August 2025.

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