PCMDI - IPCC

Coupled GCMs such as those in the AR4 intercomparison are improving but suffer biases in the eastern tropical Pacific. I would like comare the AR4 20th century control simulations with several years of hindcasts from the IPRC Regional Ocean Atmosphere Model (IROAM). IROAM is a coupled regional ocean-atmosphere-land model which combines an atmospheric model over the eastern Pacific with a basin-scale tropical Pacific Ocean model. IROAM simulates the meridional structure and seasonal evolution of SST, precipitation, and clouds reasonably well.
I am interested in the feedback of clouds and SST. I plan a comparison of simulations of the vertical structure of stratocumulus clouds, and how this affects cloud radiative forcing (especially of solar radiation) and SST.

PI:	Simon de Szoeke
Institution:	International Pacific Research Center

Abstract:
Coupled GCMs such as those in the AR4 intercomparison are improving but suffer biases in the eastern tropical Pacific. I would like comare the AR4 20th century control simulations with several years of hindcasts from the IPRC Regional Ocean Atmosphere Model (IROAM). IROAM is a coupled regional ocean-atmosphere-land model which combines an atmospheric model over the eastern Pacific with a basin-scale tropical Pacific Ocean model. IROAM simulates the meridional structure and seasonal evolution of SST, precipitation, and clouds reasonably well. I am interested in the feedback of clouds and SST. I plan a comparison of simulations of the vertical structure of stratocumulus clouds, and how this affects cloud radiative forcing (especially of solar radiation) and SST.
Publications:
de Szoeke, S. P., and S.-P. Xie, 2007, The tropical eastern Pacific seasonal cycle: Assessment of errors and mechanisms in IPCC AR4 coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models, J. Climate. Accepted. Abstract.