Dr. Shan Sun
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
2880 Broadway
New York, NY 10025
Telephone: 212-678-6031
Fax: 212-678-5622
E-mail: ssun@giss.nasa.gov
Research Interests
Coupled Model Setup
Output from Coupled Experiments
Related Publications/Presentations
Related links
My general research interests fall into areas of global warming and
short-to-long term global/regional climate variability using coupled
ocean-atmospheric-land general circulation models. My research activities
include both the development/improvement of coupled circulation models
and the analysis of coupled model output along with in situ and remotely
sensed observations.
The coupled model consists of the
GISS atmospheric model
Model E
and the
HYCOM
ocean model.
The model components are connected at the sea surface by a mass and energy
conserving "flux coupler", which maps model components from one medium to
the other.
The initial development of the coupled model has been completed.
Currently our work focus on its physics improvement and enhancement,
as well as the analysis of model results against observations.
A 200-year control run, initialized from a pre-industrial state, has many
features resembling the current climate. When adding 1% CO2 annually,
the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic has slowed down to
approximately half of the strength seen in the control run.
The ocean model is initialized with Levitus
climatology, and the atmospheric model with a state
representing the year 1880. The two model components are
joined together without separate spinup runs ("Rodeo Method"),
and are exchanged every hour during the integration.
- Atmospheric model
Model E.:
currently we are using a mesh size 4 x 5 deg on a spherical grid and
20 vertical layers.
- Ocean model HYCOM
: Mercator projection with 2 deg resolution
at equator, plus a bipolar grid
extension covering the Arctic from 59 deg N. We have recently
increased the meridional resolution within 15 deg of the equator
so that the meridional resolution at the equator is 0.6 deg.
There are 20 vertical
layers, where interior ocean is dominated by sigma_2 layers, and
constant z-levels are near the surface. The KPP mixing scheme is
used. Thermobaric effects are included.
- Ice model: both thermodynamic and dynamic ice model are incorporated,
located on the atmospheric grid.
Model output for various IPCC experiments are available from PCMDI
under the name GISS EH.
Model output from a revised version are available at
GISS EH2.
- Sun, S., and R. Bleck, 2006:
Geographic distribution of the diapycnal component of thermohaline
circulations in coupled climate models.
Ocean Modelling, 15, 177-199.
(pdf)
- Sun, S., and R. Bleck, 2006:
Multi-Century Simulations with the Coupled GISS-HYCOM Climate Model: Control Experiments.
Climate Dynamics, 26, 407-428.
(pdf)
- Bleck, R., and S. Sun, 2004:
Diagnostics of the oceanic thermohaline circulation in a coupled climate model.
Global and Planetary Change, 40, 233-248.
(pdf)
- Sun, S., and J. Hansen, 2003:
Climate Simulations for 1951-2050 with a Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Model.
J. Climate, 16, 2807-2826. (pdf)
- Sun, S., and R. Bleck, 2001:
Atlantic thermohaline circulation and its response to
increasing CO2 in a coupled atmosphere--ocean Model.
Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 4223-4226. (postscript)
- Sun, S., and R. Bleck, 2001:
Thermohaline circulation studies with an isopycnic coordinate ocean model.
J. Phys. Oceanogr., 31, 2761-2782. (gzip'ed postscript)
- MacDonald, A.E., J.L. Lee, and S. Sun, 2000:
QNH: Design and test of a quasi-nonhydrostatic model for
mesoscale weather prediction. Mon. Wea. Rev., 128, 1016-1036.
- Sun, S., R. Bleck, C. G. H. Rooth, J. Dukowicz, E. P. Chassignet,
and P. Killworth, 1999: Inclusion of thermobaricity in isopycnic-coordinate
ocean models. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 29, 2719-2729. (pdf)
- Brydon, D., S. Sun, and R. Bleck, 1999: A new approximation of the
equation of state for sea water, suitable for numerical ocean models.
J. Geophys. Res., 104, 1537-1540. (gzip'ed postscript)
- Sun, S., 1997: Compressibility effects in the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate
Ocean Model. Ph. D. dissertation, University of Miami, 138 pp.
(gzip'ed postscript)
- Bleck, R., S. Sun, and S. Dean, 1997: Global ocean simulations with an
isopycnic coordinate model. Some New Directions in Science on
Computers, G. Bhanot, S. Chen, and P. Seiden, Eds., World Scientific,
Singapore, 297-317.
- Sun, S., R. Bleck, and E. P. Chassignet, 1993: Layer outcropping in numerical models of stratified flows. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 23, 1877-1884.
Miami Isopycnal Coordinate Ocean Model (MICOM)
