Evaluating Different Techniques for Constraining Lower Atmospheric Variability in an Upper Atmosphere General Circulation Model: A Case Study During the 2010 Sudden Stratospheric Warming

Abstract

We analyze the effects specified dynamics (SD) and 4D Tendency nudging have on accurately reproducing the middle and upper atmospheric variability induced by the 2010 sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event in the National Center for Atmospheric Research thermosphere-ionosphere-mesosphere-electrodynamics general circulation model (TIME-GCM). TIME-GCM numerical experiments were performed using constrained middle atmospheric winds and temperatures from a high-altitude version of the Navy Global Environmental Model to compare the previously implemented SD scheme, with the newly implemented 4D Tendency scheme. Model comparisons focused on zonal mean winds, composition, planetary waves, and tides in the thermosphere-ionosphere system. Through 4D Tendency nudging we reveal that coupling coefficients of the one-way SD coupling approach between the TIME-GCM and observed SSW conditions were too strong. Prior implementations produced unusually strong vertical shears in the zonal mean winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), where the model is free running. Differences in zonal mean MLT winds between SD and 4D Tendency nudging simulations resulted in migrating diurnal (DW1) and semidiurnal (SW2) tidal amplitude differences at lower thermospheric altitudes. The consequences of simulating different MLT dynamics using SD and 4D Tendency nudging in the overlaying ionosphere are reported and validated using electron density data from the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate satellites. Although we demonstrate that SD and 4D Tendency nudging techniques are approximately equivalent, results presented herein establish that 4D Tendency nudging has the added potential to identify physical model parameters that contribute to data-model differences during the 2010 SSW.