Coupling the regional climate model ICON-CLM v2.6.6 to the Earth system model GCOAST-AHOI v2.0 using OASIS3-MCT v4.0

Abstract

Interactions and feedback between components of the Earth system can have a significant impact on local and regional climate and its changes due to global warming. These effects can be better represented by regional Earth system models (RESMs) than by traditional stand-alone atmosphere and ocean models. Here, we present the RESM Geesthacht Coupled cOAstal model SysTem (GCOAST)-AHOI v2.0, which includes a new atmospheric component, the regional climate model Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON)-CLM, which is coupled to the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) and the hydrological discharge model HD via the OASIS3-MCT coupler. The GCOAST-AHOI model has been developed and applied for climate simulations over the EURO-CORDEX domain. Two 11-year simulations from 2008 to 2018 of the uncoupled ICON-CLM and GCOAST-AHOI give similar results for seasonal and annual means of near-surface air temperature, precipitation, mean sea level pressure, and wind speed at a height of 10 m. However, GCOAST-AHOI has a cold sea surface temperature (SST) bias of 1–2 K over the Baltic and North seas that is most pronounced in the winter and spring seasons. A possible reason for the cold SST bias could be the underestimation of the downward shortwave radiation at the surface of ICON-CLM with the current model settings. Despite the cold SST bias, GCOAST-AHOI was able to capture other key variables well, such as those mentioned above. Therefore, GCOAST-AHOI can be a useful tool for long-term climate simulations over the EURO-CORDEX domain. Compared to the stand-alone NEMO3.6 forced by ERA5 and ORAS5 boundary forcing, GCOAST-AHOI has positive biases in sea ice fraction and salinity but negative biases in runoff, which need to be investigated further in the future to improve the coupled simulations. The new OASIS3-MCT coupling interface OMCI implemented in ICON-CLM adds the possibility of coupling ICON-CLM to an external ocean model and an external hydrological discharge model using OASIS3-MCT instead of the YAC (Yet Another Coupler). Using OMCI, it is also possible to set up a RESM with ICON-CLM and other ocean and hydrology models possessing the OASIS3-MCT interface for other regions, such as the Mediterranean Sea.