Fig 3. Sea-to-air CO₂ fluxes in the CM2-O-miniBLING suite (in mol/m²/yr). The difference (third row) between the sensitivity (second row) and the control simulation (first row) gives the anthropogenic CO₂ flux that arises from the increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration as well as changes in the ocean and atmosphere circulations under climate change. The modeling component of SOCCOM is focused on accelerating the process of reducing the uncertainty in our climate model projections of future climate associated with poor simulation of the Southern Ocean. Principal responsibility for analyzing the next-generation ultra high-resolution models and developing model-data diagnostics, which are necessary to validate these new models at this much smaller scale and use them for future projections, lies with the University of Arizona (Theme 2 Lead Joellen Russell) and Princeton University (Co-Lead Jorge Sarmiento) in collaboration with NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory through the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science. To improve our understanding of the uptake of carbon and heat by the Southern Ocean, and our ability to project the role of winds, buoyancy and stratification in determining the impacts of warming on the ocean’s role in climate, SOCCOM Modeling includes several integrated projects: Observing System Simulation Experiments to inform deployment strategy Carbon System Algorithm development and application to both new biogeochemical observations and earth system model simulations Creating new assessment tools for newly available high-resolution Climate and Earth System Models Design and implementation of Southern Ocean Wind Perturbation Experiment protocols in new simulations Development of a Southern Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (SOMIP) Development of standardized analysis packages and diagnostics to be shared with the global community.
