Experiment Proposal: Indo-Pacific pacemakers

Experiment title:
Testing the effect of Indo-Pacific SST variability on mid-latitude droughts

Summary:
Using ACCESS-ESM1.5 to test the effects of increasing or decreasing SST variability in the Indian and Pacific oceans affects the occurrence, length, and/or intensity of mid-latitude droughts.

Scientific motivation:
Palaeoclimate evidence suggests that in the first half of the past millennium, decreased ENSO and IOD variability co-occurred with increased megadrought occurrence across the mid-latitudes. This suggests a relationship between Indo-Pacific SST variability and mid-latitude hydroclimate variability.

We are testing this hypothesis by running ACCESS-ESM1.5 in pacemaker format where the magnitude of tropical Indian and Pacific Ocean SST variability is altered using 4 forcing scenarios: 60% reduction, 30% reduction, 30% enhancement, 60% enhancement. We have created SST forcing files by taking the 500 years from the existing 1000-year-long control run, altering the magnitude of SST variability, and using these as SST restoring files (with all other model components allowed to evolve freely).

In the first instance we will alter both Indian and Pacific ocean SST variability. In later experiments we will alter SST variability in the individual ocean basins, to aid in diagnosing the results.

Design and details
Experiment Name: TBA
People: @georgyfalster @spencerwong + Nerilie Abram
Model: ACCESS-ESM1.5
Configuration: TBA
Initial conditions: path to restart files TBA
Run plan: 500 model years for each forcing scenario = 2000 model years total
Simulation details: TBA
Total KSUs required: 2000 model years x 1.1 kSU per year = 2200 kSU
Time required: 4 parallel runs of 500 years @ 16 years/day = 32 days
Total storage required: TBA
Storage lifetime: approx. 6 months?
Long term data plan: a very reduced set of relevant outputs to be permanently archived in a suitable repository
Outputs: TBA
Restarts: TBA
Related articles: TBA

Analysis:
TBA

Conclusion:
TBA

1 Like

Hi Georgy,
Thanks for the proposal. Just wondering, how soon could you potentially start these simulations? We currently have 400 KSU remaining in lg87 for Q1, but there could potentially be some unused SUs in other working groups.
So, if you can start promptly there might be some scope to grab additional unused SUs in Q1.
Regards,
David

Thanks! That would be ace, because to run all the simulations I’d like would take a lot more SU than I currently have.

As per discussions elsewhere: how quickly this happens depends on how quickly I can get set up with the Met Office account. After that everything is mostly in place to start within ~a week (depending on how much time I am inclined to take out of my between-jobs holiday)

Hi @dkhutch

I am more or less up and running now - I’ve successfully done a test run with the ESM and now just need to add the tweaks to run it in pacemaker mode. If there are still kSU that need to be used I could probably start getting through some from next week? That is, if someone shows me how to draw from two projects at once :sweat_smile:

3 Likes

That’s great news! Thanks so much to folks at ACCESS-NRI for making that happen so quickly. @spencerwong @heidi @Aidan @clairecarouge I know it hasn’t always been that simple.
Hmmm… well for now I’d suggest to go ahead and run using project lg87 for your simulations to use what’s there for Q1 (~400 KSU). If there are other unused resources in the other WGs we can discuss if some portion can be redistributed.