Robson, J., Aksenov, Y., Bracegirdle, TJ, Dimdore-Miles, O., Griffiths, PT, Grosvenor, DP, Hodson, DLR, Keeble, J., MacIntosh, C., Megann, A., Osprey, S., Povey, AC, Schröder, D., Yang, M., Archibald, AT, Carslaw, KS, Gray, L., Jones, C., Kerridge, B.,… Wilcox, LJ (2020). The Evaluation of the North Atlantic Climate System in UKESM1 Historical Simulations for CMIP6. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 12 (9), e2020MS002126. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020MS002126
Summary:
The North Atlantic climate system plays an important role in regulating Earth’s climate, and variability within the Atlantic can have important impacts on society. However, we do not understand all the linkages between different parts of the North Atlantic. Furthermore, climate simulations, which are an essential tool for improving our understanding, have shortcomings that can affect their utility. New developments in Earth System climate simulations could remedy these shortcomings. The extent to which the addition of complex Earth system developments have changed or improved the simulation of the physical climate is still unknown. In this paper, a multidisciplinary evaluation of the North Atlantic climate in simulations made with the UK’s Earth System Model, UKESM1 is presented. The simulations made with UKESM1 capture many aspects of the North Atlantic climate and that human activities have a large impact on the North Atlantic in UKESM1. Nevertheless, some shortcomings of the simulations, many of which are like those seen in physical climate simulations are highlighted. The authors stressed the importance of further development of both the physical and Earth system components to improve climate simulations in the future.