Effects of eddy variability on the response of the ACC to global warming (R'Eddy)

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Observations show a significant intensification of the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies over the past decades. A continuation of this trend is projected by climate models for the 21st century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. The dynamic response of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) to the atmospheric forcing depends on an intricate balance between wind-driven (Ekman) transports, eddy-induced transports, and changes in the meridional density contrast due to concomitant anomalies in the buoyancy fluxes. Climate model studies generally show a progressive increase in the ACC transport as well as in its meridional overturning circulation, behaviour of critical importance for the carbon dioxide uptake in the Southern Ocean. This picture is under debate, because the Ekman effect is thought to be opposed by wind-induced increases in eddy fluxes, an effect that may not be captured in current eddy transport parameterizations. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of explicitly resolved eddies on the Southern Ocean’s response to global warming by conducting a sequence of global climate model simulations with successively increased resolutions (up to 1/12° to 1/15°) in the ACC regime of the ocean component. The results of the high-resolution experiments will provide a benchmark for the reliability of eddy parameterization schemes in non-eddy resolving climate and carbon cycle models.