An Ocean-Atmosphere Simulation for Studying Air-Sea Interactions

Abstract

During the past few years the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) modeling groups have produced, respectively, global atmosphere-only and ocean-only simulations with km-scale grid spacing. These simulations have proved invaluable for process studies and for the development of satellite and in-situ sampling strategies. Nevertheless, a key limitation of these "nature" simulations is the lack of interactivity between the ocean and the atmosphere, which limits their usefulness for studying air-sea interactions and for designing observing missions to study these interactions. To remove this limitation, we aim to couple the km-scale GEOS atmosphere simulation to the km-scale MIT ocean simulation.