Decadal-to-interdecadal response and adjustment of the North Pacific to prescribed surface forcing in an oceanic general circulation model

The simulation of a higher-resolution oceanic GCM forced with COADS surface conditions during 1945~1993 was analyzed with insight into how the North Pacific responds to the surface forcing. The decadal-to-interdecadal variabilities in the thermal and dynamical fields especially those associated with the 1976/1977 regime shift in the North Pacific were investigated. The model successfully captures the dominant SST anomaly mode on the decadal-to-interdecadal time scales as well as the major feature of SST anomalies in the 1976/1977 regime shift. The model also successfully reproduces two typical subduction events that link the tropical and extratropical oceanic temperature anomalies during the 1970s and the 1980s. Most importantly, the model simulates the dynamical adjustment of the upper ocean under the surface wind forcing. The typical surface circulation anomaly is characterized by a pattern that is simultaneously related to the wind stress anomalies. The typical anomalous pattern for the entire upper-ocean is characterized by coherent anomalies of two oceanic gyres, i.e., the subtropical and subpolar gyres. The delayed response and slower adjustment of the gyres, especially of the subpolar gyre, give rise to a persistent SST anomaly in the central North Pacific. The upper-ocean heat budgets in three target regions, i.e., the central North Pacific, the Californian coastal region and the KOE region, are examined.The cooling in the central North Pacific around 1976/1977 is attributed to the heat flux and meridional advection anomalies. The associated warming in the Californian coastal region is only due to the heat flux anomaly. A cooling shift in the KOE region which lags that in the central basin by 3 to 4 a is largely due to the meridional advection anomaly and the heat flux acts only as a damping role.