The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Description and results at high resolution

This study provides an overview of the coupled high-resolution Version 1 of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1) and documents the characteristics of a 50-year-long high-resolution control simulation with time-invariant 1950 forcings following the HighResMIP protocol. In terms of global root-mean-squared error metrics, this high-resolution simulation is generally superior to results from the low-resolution configuration of E3SMv1 (due to resolution, tuning changes, and possibly initialization procedure) and compares favorably to models in the CMIP5 ensemble. Ocean and sea ice simulation is particularly improved, due to better resolution of bathymetry, the ability to capture more variability and extremes in winds and currents, and the ability to resolve mesoscale ocean eddies. The largest improvement in this regard is an ice-free Labrador Sea, which is a major problem at low resolution. Interestingly, several features found to improve with resolution in previous studies are insensitive to resolution or even degrade in E3SMv1. Most notable in this regard are warm bias and associated stratocumulus deficiency in eastern subtropical oceans and lack of improvement in El Nino. Another major finding of this study is that resolution increase had negligible impact on climate sensitivity (measured by net feedback determined through uniform +4K prescribed sea surface temperature increase) and aerosol sensitivity. Cloud response to resolution increase consisted of very minor decrease at all levels. Large-scale patterns of precipitation bias were also relatively unaffected by grid spacing.

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Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : Aquarius Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Standard Mapped Image Annual Data V3.0

Related Dataset #2 : Gridded Monthly Sea Ice Extent and Concentration, 1850 Onward, Version 2

Related Dataset #3 : International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Climate Data Record, H-Series

Related MediaObject #1 : Animated E3SM V1 High Resolution Full Coupled Sea Ice Thickness and Extent with mid-20th Century Atmospheric Constituents
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Author Caldwell, Peter M.
Mametjanov, Azamat
Tang, Qi
Van Roekel, Luke P.
Golaz, Jean‐Christophe
Lin, Wuyin
Bader, David C.
Keen, Noel D.
Feng, Yan
Jacob, Robert
Maltrud, Mathew E.
Roberts, Andrew F.
Taylor, Mark A.
Veneziani, Milena
Wang, Hailong
Wolfe, Jonathan D.
Balaguru, Karthik
Cameron‐Smith, Philip
Dong, Lu
Klein, Stephen A.
Leung, L. Ruby
Li, Hong‐Yi
Li, Qing
Liu, Xiaohong
Neale, Richard B.
Pinheiro, Marielle
Qian, Yun
Ullrich, Paul A.
Xie, Shaocheng
Yang, Yang
Zhang, Yuying
Zhang, Kai
Zhou, Tian
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2019-12-09T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:07:23.609767
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:23133
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Caldwell, Peter M., Mametjanov, Azamat, Tang, Qi, Van Roekel, Luke P., Golaz, Jean‐Christophe, Lin, Wuyin, Bader, David C., Keen, Noel D., Feng, Yan, Jacob, Robert, Maltrud, Mathew E., Roberts, Andrew F., Taylor, Mark A., Veneziani, Milena, Wang, Hailong, Wolfe, Jonathan D., Balaguru, Karthik, Cameron‐Smith, Philip, Dong, Lu, Klein, Stephen A., Leung, L. Ruby, Li, Hong‐Yi, Li, Qing, Liu, Xiaohong, Neale, Richard B., Pinheiro, Marielle, Qian, Yun, Ullrich, Paul A., Xie, Shaocheng, Yang, Yang, Zhang, Yuying, Zhang, Kai, Zhou, Tian. (2019). The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Description and results at high resolution. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cr5xhx. Accessed 29 July 2025.

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