Geoscientific Model Development Discussions www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net 1991-9611 1991-962X 3 1 2010 10.5194/gmdd-3-61-2010 http://www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net/3/61/2010/ http://www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net/3/61/2010/gmdd-3-61-2010.html http://www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net/3/61/2010/gmdd-3-61-2010.pdf 61 97 2010-02-03 Development of a system emulating the global carbon cycle in Earth system models K. Tachiiri tachiiri@jamstec.go.jp J. C. Hargreaves J. D. Annan A. Oka A. Abe-Ouchi M. Kawamiya Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology 3173-25 Showamachi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan Center for Climate System Research, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8568, Japan By combining the strong points of general circulation models (GCMs), which contain detailed and complex processes, and Earth system models of intermediate complexity (EMICs), which are quick and capable of large ensembles, we have developed a loosely coupled model (LCM) which can represent the outputs of a GCM-based Earth system model using much smaller computational resources. <br><br> We address the problem of relatively poor representation of precipitation within our EMIC, which prevents us from directly coupling it to a vegetation model, by coupling it to a precomputed transient simulation using a full GCM. The LCM consists of three components: an EMIC (MIROC-lite) which consists of a 2-D energy balance atmosphere coupled to a low resolution 3-D GCM ocean including an ocean carbon cycle; a state of the art vegetation model (Sim-CYCLE); and a database of daily temperature, precipitation, and other necessary climatic fields to drive Sim-CYCLE from a precomputed transient simulation from a state of the art AOGCM. The transient warming of the climate system is calculated from MIROC-lite, with the global temperature anomaly used to select the most appropriate annual climatic field from the pre-computed AOGCM simulation which, in this case, is a 1% pa increasing CO₂ concentration scenario. <br><br> By adjusting the climate sensitivity of MIROC-lite, the transient warming of the LCM could be adjusted to closely follow the low sensitivity (4.0 K) version of MIROC3.2. 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