Modeling the Mid-Pliocene at High Resolution

In this poster, I will present plans to complete a PlioMIP2 simulation at high resolution (HR) in the fully-coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM). This simulation is part of the NCAR Accelerated Scientific Discovery PaleoWeather project and also includes HR simulations of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, with CO₂ reconstructed to be much higher than today’s, and the Last Glacial Maximum with much lower CO₂. CESM is being configured with a resolution of 0.25° for the atmosphere and land, and 0.1° for the ocean and sea ice.

This set of fully-coupled paleo-HR climate simulations for past greenhouse and icehouse climates will study the drivers that govern the characteristics of extreme weather events in both atmosphere and ocean under altered climate states. Potential applications include diagnosing changes in atmospheric synoptic features like mesoscale convective systems, tropical cyclones, monsoons, and atmospheric rivers, of coastal upwelling zones, and for their impacts on past regional precipitation patterns. In addition, the paleo-HR simulations will better resolve the landscape of topographies and coasts.  Both are critical for accurate comparison with the paleoclimate record since most of the terrestrial and marine paleo-observations come from basins surrounded by mountains and near-shore locations.

The paleo-HR simulations will complement the preindustrial, historical and RCP8.5 future simulations available from the iHESP project (https://ihesp.tamu.edu/), resulting in HR simulations to investigate the dynamics that connect past and future climate changes.