An Iteratively Coupled Modeling Approach to Investigating the 'Equable Climate Problem'

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Abstract ATM-9810799 Sloan, Lisa C. University of California, Santa Cruz Title: An Iteratively Coupled Modeling Approach to Investigating the "Equable Climate Problem" Equable climates appear to have been common throughout Earth history and yet are without well established cause. This award supports a study designed to explore ocean-atmosphere links in warm climates states, and to bridge the gap between stand-alone and interactively coupled models. Stand-alone atmospheric and ocean models will be coupled iteratively in a study which investigates causes of equable climates. Model results will be tested with proxy marine and terrestrial paleoclimate data, to evaluate the modeling approach. A hierarchy of three dimensional dynamical models of the ocean-atmosphere system will be useed to explore changes in oceanic meridional heat transport and the general circulation, as functions of atmospheric pCO2 and meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients. This study will provide explicit, quantitative mechanisms of ocean-atmosphere poleward heat transport, as well as more completely define the dynamics of warm climate intervals. In addition, the iterative modeling procedure will help to determine how best to approach climate modeling for times significantly different from present day.