Effects in a climate model of slope tapering in neutral physics schemes

In many global ocean climate models, mesoscale eddies are parameterized as along isopycnal diffusion and eddy-induced advection (or equivalently skew-diffusion). The eddy-induced advection flattens isopycnals and acts as a sink of available potential energy, whereas the isopycnal diffusion mixes tracers along neutral directions. While much effort has gone into estimating diffusivities associated with this closure, less attention has been paid to the details of how this closure (which tries to flatten isopycnals) interacts with the mixed layer (in which vertical mixing tries to drive the isopycnals vertical). In order to maintain numerical stability, models often stipulate a maximum slope Smax which in combination with the thickness diffusivity Agm defines a maximum eddy-induced advective transport Agm∗Smax. In this paper, we examine the impact of changing Smax within the GFDL global coupled climate model. We show that this parameter produces significant changes in wintertime mixed layer depth, with implications for wintertime temperatures in key regions, the distribution of precipitation, and the vertical structure of heat uptake. Smaller changes are seen in details of ventilation and currents, and even smaller changes as regards the overall hydrography. The results suggest that not only the value of the coefficient, but the details of the tapering scheme, need to be considered when comparing isopycnal mixing schemes in models.