ANALYSIS OF THE IMPROVEMENT IN IMPLIED MERIDIONAL OCEAN ENERGY-TRANSPORT AS SIMULATED BY THE NCAR CCM3

The implied meridional ocean energy transport dia nosed from uncoupled integrations of two atmospheric general circulation models-the Nation al Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model versions 2 and 3 (CCM2 and CCM3)-shows radically different transport characterist ics throughout much of the Southern Hemisphere. The CCM2 simulation re quires an equatorward transport of energy by the oceans, and the CCM3 exhibits a poleward energy transport requirement, very similar to what is derived from observational analyses. Previous studies have suggest ed that errors in the implied ocean energy transport are largely attri butable to errors in the simulated cloud radiative forcing. The result s of this analysis show that although the proper simulation of the rad iative effects of clouds is likely to be a necessary condition for rea listic meridional ocean energy transport, it is not sufficient. import ant changes in the CCM3 equatorial surface latent heat fluxes, associa ted with a deep formulation for parameterized moist convection, are pr imarily responsible for the improved ocean energy transport, where thi s change in the surface energy budget is much more weakly reflected in top-of-atmosphere differences in cloud radiative forcing.