Collaborative Research: Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Feedbacks Affecting California Coastal Climate: Current Conditions and Future Projections

加州的沿海气候深受海洋的影响，海洋缓和了炎热的夏季，并为急需的冬季降雨提供了水分。海洋表面温度(SST)异常和海洋表面流异常，从沿海冷流的中尺度到锋面尺度，到海洋热浪的区域到盆地尺度，都与大气有内在的耦合。这项研究集中在影响沿海气候、天气和上升流的基本耦合海洋-大气反馈过程。该项目将使用海洋-大气耦合系统的数值模式，以提高对加州沿海地区海洋-大气相互作用的理解，包括与陆地和山脉的相互作用。此外，它还将研究未来温室气体强迫变化对加州沿海气候的影响。该项目将使用一系列区域高分辨率海洋-大气耦合模式模拟来量化海洋-大气边界层耦合对加州沿海地区的影响，包括完全的海洋-大气耦合和良好分辨率的地形和陆地-海洋分布。这些将包括因观测到的当前气候和预测的未来气候边界条件而被迫进行的10年长跑的集合，以及在观测到的海洋热浪条件下启动的集合。模型运行将被用来研究大气和海洋上升流领域的每日、季节内和年际变化的统计数据如何受到与涡流、锋面和极端SST异常相关的异常海洋-大气条件的影响，并评估它们可能如何因与全球变暖有关的大尺度大气和海洋驱动因素的变化而改变。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The coastal climate of California is profoundly affected by the ocean, which moderates its hot summers and provides moisture for much-needed winter rains. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and ocean surface current anomalies, ranging from the meso-to-frontal scales of cool coastal upwelling to the regional-to-basin scales of the marine heat waves, are inherently coupled with the atmosphere. This study focuses on the fundamental coupled ocean-atmosphere feedback processes that affect the climate, weather, and upwelling along the coast. The project will use numerical models of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system to improve understanding of the ocean-atmosphere interactions, including with land and mountains, for coastal California. In addition, it will examine the effects on climate of coastal California under projected future greenhouse-gas-forced changes.This project will quantify the effects of ocean-atmosphere boundary layer coupling on California coastal regions using a series of regional high-resolution coupled ocean-atmosphere model simulations, including full ocean-atmosphere coupling and well-resolved orography and land-sea distribution. These will include ensembles of 10-year long runs forced by observed current climate and projected future climate boundary conditions, as well as ensembles of runs initialized under observed marine heat wave conditions. The model runs will be used to study how the statistics of daily, intraseasonal and interannual variability in the atmosphere and the oceanic upwelling field, are affected by the anomalous ocean-atmosphere conditions associated with eddies, fronts, and extreme SST anomalies, and assess how they may be altered by changes in large-scale atmospheric and oceanic drivers associated with global warming.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.