Effects of freshwater runoff on a tropical pacific climate in the HadGEM2

• Published in: Asia-Pacific journal of atmospheric sciences Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 457 - 463
• Main Authors: Ham, Suryun, Hong, Song-You, Noh, Yign, An, Soon-Il, Byun, Young-Hwa, Kang, Hyun-Suk, Lee, Johan, Kwon, Won-Tae
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Korean Meteorological Society 01.11.2012; 한국기상학회
• Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; Climatology; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; 대기과학; total runoff integrating pathways; Hadley centre global environmental model; flow routing; River discharge
• ISSN: 1976-7633; 1976-7951
• DOI: 10.1007/s13143-012-0041-3

This paper investigates the effects of river discharge on simulated climatology from 1979 to 1988 using the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 2. Two experiments are performed with and without the inclusion of Total Runoff Integrating Pathways. The results show that the inclusion of flow routing can lead to the decrease of salinity over the coastal region due to freshwater. This reduction results in a shallower mixed layer depth, which in turn leads to the weakening of trade winds and a decrease in vertical mixing in the ocean. The enhanced sensible and latent heat fluxes over warmed SST improve the simulated precipitation and thermodynamic circulation. As a result, the experiment with flow routing is capable of improving the large-scale climate feature with an increase in precipitation over the eastern tropical equatorial Pacific region.