Freshening biases in the freshwater flux of CORE data

Abstract

The authors investigate biases in the freshwater flux (FWF) of CORE.v2—a common data-set for stand-alone ocean models—based on the results of a set of experiments using an OGCM. The authors identify freshening biases in the FWF in the subtropical regions of the North Pacific, South Pacific, and South Atlantic, which may be caused by the weak surface wind, high specific humidity, or high precipitation in the CORE.v2 data. The authors also find biases in sea surface salinity that are caused by ocean dynamics, such as in the North Atlantic, and that cannot be corrected by correcting surface forcing.