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Global Model Sensitivity to Parmaterizing Langmuir Circulation

Adrean Webb (1), Baylor Fox-Kemper (2)

CIRES

Using data from the NOAA WaveWatch III model, a more realistic climatology of Langmuir circulation was developed to include these global effects. This climatology with an energetic schema adapted from Li and Garrett (1997) was incorporated into CCSM 3.5 to estimate the sensitivity due to Langmuir circulation. Currently, the NCAR CCSM 3.5 model uses a nonlocal K-profile parmerterization to account for unresolved scales, which includes Langmuir mixing in that it is trained against observations. However, the parameterization is locally dependent on wind only and does not include wave information which can be global in nature. 20th century year model runs show potentially significant effects from more realistic treatment of Langmuir
circulation, with deeper mixed layers and altered CO2 rates in the Southern Ocean.