Climate simulations with a new air-sea turbulent flux parameterization in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3)

Under identical initial and boundary conditions, the original CAM3 and CAM3 coupled with the new turbulent flux scheme are used to simulate the global distribution of air-sea surface turbulent fluxes, and precipitation. Comparisons of model outputs against the European Remote Sensing Satellites (ERS), the Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes (OAFlux), and Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) show that: (1) the new scheme produces more realistic surface wind stress in the North Pacific and North Atlantic trade wind belts and wintertime extratropical storm track regions; (2) the latent heat flux in the Northern Hemisphere trade wind zones shows modest improvement in the new scheme, and the latent heat flux bias in the western boundary current region of the Gulf Stream is reduced; and (3) the simulated precipitation in the new scheme is closer to observation in the Asian monsoon region.