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The current literature provides compelling evidence suggesting that an eddy-resolving (as opposed to eddy-permitting or eddy-parameterized) ocean component model will significantly impact the simulation of the large-scale climate, although this has not been fully tested to date in multi-decadal global coupled climate simulations. The purpose of this paper is to examine how resolved ocean fronts and eddies impact the simulation of large-scale climate. The model used for this study is the NCAR Community Climate System Model version 3.5 (CCSM3.5)-the forerunner to CCSM4. Two experiments are reported here. The control experiment is a 155-year present-day climate simulation using a 0.5° atmosphere component (zonal resolution 0.625 meridional resolution 0.5°; land surface component at the same resolution) coupled to ocean and sea-ice components with zonal resolution of 1.2° and meridional resolution varying from 0.27° at the equator to 0.54° in the mid-latitudes. The second simulation uses the same atmospheric and land-surface models coupled to eddy-resolving 0.1° ocean and sea-ice component models. The simulations are compared in terms of how the representation of smaller scale features in the time mean ocean circulation and ocean eddies impact the mean and variable climate. In terms of the global mean surface temperature, the enhanced ocean resolution leads to a ubiquitous surface warming with a global mean surface temperature increase of about 0.2 °C relative to the control. The warming is largest in the Arctic and regions of strong ocean fronts and ocean eddy activity (i.e., Southern Ocean, western boundary currents). The Arctic warming is associated with significant losses of sea-ice in the high-resolution simulation. The sea surface temperature gradients in the North Atlantic, in particular, are better resolved in the high-resolution model leading to significantly sharper temperature gradients and associated large-scale shifts in the rainfall. In the extra-tropics, the interannual temperature variability is increased with the resolved eddies, and a notable increases in the amplitude of the El Niño and the Southern Oscillation is also detected. Changes in global temperature anomaly teleconnections and local air-sea feedbacks are also documented and show large changes in ocean-atmosphere coupling. In particular, local air-sea feedbacks are significantly modified by the increased ocean resolution. In the high-resolution simulation in the extra-tropics there is compelling evidence of stronger forcing of the atmosphere by SST variability arising from ocean dynamics. This coupling is very weak or absent in the low-resolution model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A new neural network (NN) based global empirical model for the foF2 parameter, which represents the peak ionospheric electron density, has been developed using extended temporal and spatial geophysical relevant inputs. It has been proposed that this new model be considered as a suitable replacement for the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) and International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) model options currently used within the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model for the purpose of F2 peak electron density predictions. The most recent version of the model has incorporated data from 135 global ionospheric stations including a number of equatorial stations. This paper concentrates on the ability of this new model to predict foF2 for the equatorial sector, an area that has been identified as problematic within the current IRI peak prediction setup. The improvement in the predictions of the foF2 parameter by the new model as compared to the URSI and CCIR model options of the IRI is demonstrated and the requirement for additional foF2 data from the equatorial zone for the purpose of global modeling of foF2 is highlighted in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is one of the most important components of the global circulation. In order to understand the dynamical processes that regulate its formation, latitudinal preference, and structure, explicit two-dimensional numerical modeling of convection on an equatorial beta plane was conducted with a nonhydrostatic cloud-system-resolving model. The model was forced by energy fluxes associated with constant sea surface temperature (SST) and by horizontally homogeneous radiative cooling. Two distinct patterns were identified for the spatial distribution of convective activity in the Tropics. The first was characteristic of enhanced off-equator convection, namely, a double ITCZ-like morphology (one more salient than the other) straddling the equator during the early period of the integration. The second featured enhanced equatorial convection, namely, a single ITCZ-like morphology on the equator during the later quasi-equilibrium period. Diagnostic analysis and two additional experiments, one excluding surface friction and the other having time- and space-independent surface fluxes, revealed that the wind-induced surface flux variability played an essential role in the development and maintenance of the equatorial maximum convection. Surface friction was largely responsible for the early asymmetric convective distribution with respect to the equator in the control simulation and acted to flatten the convective peaks. One important discrepancy from observations concerned the too-weak trade wind convergence around enhanced convective regions. This unrealistic feature suggested that, as well as the meridional dynamics, latitudinal SST gradients, large-scale forcing, and other physical processes regulate the observed ITCZs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we question the relative importance of direct wind measurements in the tropics by investigating limits of four-dimensional variational assimilation (4D-Var) in the tropics when only wind or mass field observations are available. Typically observed equatorial wave motion fields (Kelvin, mixed Rossby-gravity and equatorial Rossby waves) are assimilated in a non-linear shallow water model. Perfect observations on the full model grid are utilized and no background error term is used. The results illustrate limits of 4D-Var with only one type of information, in particular mass field information. First, there is a limit of information available through the internal model dynamics. This limit is defined by the length of the assimilation window, in relation to the characteristics of the motion being assimilated. Secondly, there is a limit related to the type of observations used. In all cases of assimilation of wind field data, two or three time instants with observations are sufficient to recover the mass field, independent of the length of the assimilation time window. Assimilation of mass field data, on the other hand, although capable of wind field reconstruction, is much more dependent on the dynamical properties of the assimilated motion system. Assimilating height information is less efficient, and the divergent part of the wind field is always recovered first and more completely than its rotational part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple mathematical model without seasonality indicated that the apparently chaotic dengue epidemics in Singapore have characteristics similar to epidemics resulting from chance. Randomness as a sufficient condition for patterns of dengue epidemics in equatorial regions calls into question existing explanations for dengue outbreaks there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]