Middle atmosphere simulated with high vertical and horizontal resolution versions of a GCM: Improvements in the cold pole bias and generation of a QBO-like oscillation in the tropics

Abstract

The large-scale circulation in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory `SKYHI' troposphere-stratosphere-mesosphere finite-difference general circulation model is examined as a function of vertical and horizontal resolution. The experiments examined include one with horizontal grid spacing of approximately 35 km and another with approximately 100 km horizontal grid spacing but very high vertical resolution (160 levels between the ground and about 85 km). The simulation of the middle-atmospheric zonal-mean winds and temperatures in the extratropics is found to be very sensitive to horizontal resolution. For example, in the early Southern Hemisphere winter the South Pole near 1 mb in the model is colder than observed, but the bias is reduced with improved horizontal resolution (from approximately 70 °C in a version with approximately 300 km grid spacing to less than 10 °C in the approximately 35 km version). The extratropical simulation is found to be only slightly affected by enhancements of the vertical resolution. By contrast, the tropical middle-atmospheric simulation is extremely dependent on the vertical resolution employed. With level spacing in the lower stratosphere approximately 1.5 km, the lower stratospheric zonal-mean zonal winds in the equatorial region are nearly constant in time. When the vertical resolution is doubled, the simulated stratospheric zonal winds exhibit a strong equatorially centered oscillation with downward propagation of the wind reversals and with formation of strong vertical shear layers. This appears to be a spontaneous internally generated oscillation and closely resembles the observed QBO in many respects, although the simulated oscillation has a period less than half that of the real QBO.