Articles | Volume 16, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4811-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4811-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Model description paper
| 
24 Aug 2023
Model description paper |
| 24 Aug 2023
| 24 Aug 2023
MESMAR v1: a new regional coupled climate model for downscaling, predictability, and data assimilation studies in the Mediterranean region
Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), National Research Council
(CNR), Rome, Italy
National Research Center for High Performance Computing,
Big Data and Quantum Computing, ICSC, Italy
Yassmin Hesham Essa
Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), National Research Council
(CNR), Rome, Italy
Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate (CLAC), Agricultural
Research Center (ARC), Cairo, Egypt
Vincenzo de Toma
Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), National Research Council
(CNR), Rome, Italy
Alessandro Anav
National Research Center for High Performance Computing,
Big Data and Quantum Computing, ICSC, Italy
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and
Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Rome, Italy
Gianmaria Sannino
National Research Center for High Performance Computing,
Big Data and Quantum Computing, ICSC, Italy
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and
Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Rome, Italy
Rosalia Santoleri
Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), National Research Council
(CNR), Rome, Italy
Chunxue Yang
Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), National Research Council
(CNR), Rome, Italy
National Research Center for High Performance Computing,
Big Data and Quantum Computing, ICSC, Italy
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Short summary
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-627, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-627, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Closing the sea‑level budget on annual and longer time scales is a cornerstone of physical oceanography because sea‑level rise is one of the best indicators of climate change, and a closed budget shows we have identified and quantified all major drivers. We examined it from 1993 to 2022, finding an accelerated rise that matched ice melt and warm water until 2015. Afterwards an unexplained gap appears. Better deep‑ocean observations and refined gravity processing are needed to close the budget.
Mohamed Hamitouche, Giorgia Fosser, Arezoo RafieeiNasab, and Alessandro Anav
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 2881–2901, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2881-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2881-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Predicting how much water flows from rivers into the Mediterranean is challenging due to climate change and human impacts. We compared two hydrological models – a global river routing model and a fully coupled land surface–hydrology model – to assess their performance. The coupled model, especially after calibration, better reproduces river discharge and seasonal flow, helping improve flood and drought planning.
Didier Swingedouw, Laura Jackson, Aixue Hu, Anastasia Romanou, Nicole C. Laureanti, Wilbert Weijer, Sina Loriani, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Lucas Almeida, Alessio Bellucci, Reyk Börner, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Donovan P. Dennis, Marion Devilliers, Sybren Drijfhout, Jonathan Donges, Friederike Fröb, Thomas L. Frölicher, Guillaume Gastineau, Heiko Goelzer, Chuncheng Guo, Urs Hofmann, Anna Höse, Colin Jones, Torben Koenigk, Ann Kristin Klose, Valerio Lembo, Jose Licon-Salaiz, Ken Mankoff, Virna Meccia, Irina Melnikova, Oliver Mehling, Laurie Menviel, Juliette Mignot, Jon I. Robson, Gavin A. Schmidt, Robin Smith, Yuchen Sun, Irene Trombini, Matteo Willeit, Richard Wood, Fanghua Wu, Lin Zhaohui, and Ricarda Winkelmann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1698, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1698, 2026
Short summary
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This study presents a plan for climate model experiments to better understand how changes in freshwater in the North Atlantic affect major ocean currents. We designed coordinated simulations to test their response to warming, added freshwater, and possible recovery after weakening. Comparing results across models and past climate evidence helps improve confidence in projections and assess risks of large ocean circulation changes.
Haohao Zhang, Andrea Storto, Xuezhi Bai, and Chunxue Yang
The Cryosphere, 19, 6807–6826, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6807-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6807-2025, 2025
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Using a 1D coupled ice-ocean model, we quantified the effects of meltwater and ice-albedo feedback independently. The meltwater reduces melting by 19 % through thermal isolation, while ice-albedo feedback increases melting by 41 %, with nonlinear coupling between them. In winter, meltwater protects ice in weakly stratified areas by blocking Atlantic heat. Our study provides new insights into the relative importance of different components in the Arctic ice-ocean system.
Maria Vittoria Struglia, Alessandro Anav, Marta Antonelli, Sandro Calmanti, Franco Catalano, Alessandro Dell'Aquila, Emanuela Pichelli, and Giovanna Pisacane
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Short summary
We present the results of downscaling global climate projections for the Mediterranean and Italian regions aiming to produce high-resolution climate information for the assessment of climate change signals, focusing on extreme events. A general warming is foreseen by the end of century, with a mean precipitation reduction accompanied, over the Italian Peninsula, by a strong increase in the intensity of extreme precipitation events, particularly relevant for the high emissions scenario during autumn.
Andrea Storto, Sergey Frolov, Laura Slivinski, and Chunxue Yang
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4789–4804, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4789-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4789-2025, 2025
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Inaccuracies in air–sea heat fluxes severely degrade the accuracy of ocean numerical simulations. Here, we use artificial neural networks to correct air–sea heat fluxes as a function of oceanic and atmospheric state predictors. The correction successfully improves surface and subsurface ocean temperatures beyond the training period and in prediction experiments.
Marie Bouih, Anne Barnoud, Chunxue Yang, Andrea Storto, Alejandro Blazquez, William Llovel, Robin Fraudeau, and Anny Cazenave
Ocean Sci., 21, 1425–1440, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1425-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1425-2025, 2025
Short summary
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Present-day sea level rise is not uniform regionally. For better understanding of regional sea level variations, a classical approach is to compare the observed sea level trend patterns with those of the sum of the contributions. If the regional sea level trend budget is not closed, this allows the detection of errors in the observing systems. Our study shows that the trend budget is not closed in the North Atlantic Ocean and identifies errors in Argo-based salinity data as the main suspect.
Marco Chericoni, Giorgia Fosser, Emmanouil Flaounas, Gianmaria Sannino, and Alessandro Anav
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 627–643, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-627-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-627-2025, 2025
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This study explores how sea surface energy influences both the atmosphere and ocean at various vertical levels during extreme Mediterranean cyclones. It focuses on cyclones' precipitation and wind speed response, as well as on ocean temperature variation. The findings highlight the regional coupled model's ability to coherently represent the thermodynamic and dynamic processes of the cyclones across both the atmosphere and the ocean.
Mohamed Hamitouche, Giorgia Fosser, Alessandro Anav, Cenlin He, and Tzu-Shun Lin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1221–1240, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1221-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1221-2025, 2025
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This study evaluates how different methods of simulating runoff impact river flow predictions globally. By comparing seven approaches within the Noah-Multi-parameterisation (Noah-MP) land surface model, we found significant differences in accuracy, with some methods underestimating or overestimating runoff. The results are crucial for improving water resource management and flood prediction. Our work highlights the need for precise modelling to better prepare for climate-related challenges.
Andrea Storto, Giulia Chierici, Julia Pfeffer, Anne Barnoud, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Alejandro Blazquez, Davide Cavaliere, Noémie Lalau, Benjamin Coupry, Marie Drevillon, Sebastien Fourest, Gilles Larnicol, and Chunxue Yang
State Planet, 4-osr8, 12, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-12-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-12-2024, 2024
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The variability in the manometric sea level (i.e. the sea level mass component) in three ocean basins is investigated in this study using three different methods (reanalyses, gravimetry, and altimetry in combination with in situ observations). We identify the emerging long-term signals, the consistency of the datasets, and the influence of large-scale climate modes on the regional manometric sea level variations at both seasonal and interannual timescales.
Karina von Schuckmann, Lorena Moreira, Mathilde Cancet, Flora Gues, Emmanuelle Autret, Ali Aydogdu, Lluis Castrillo, Daniele Ciani, Andrea Cipollone, Emanuela Clementi, Gianpiero Cossarini, Alvaro de Pascual-Collar, Vincenzo De Toma, Marion Gehlen, Rianne Giesen, Marie Drevillon, Claudia Fanelli, Kevin Hodges, Simon Jandt-Scheelke, Eric Jansen, Melanie Juza, Ioanna Karagali, Priidik Lagemaa, Vidar Lien, Leonardo Lima, Vladyslav Lyubartsev, Ilja Maljutenko, Simona Masina, Ronan McAdam, Pietro Miraglio, Helen Morrison, Tabea Rebekka Panteleit, Andrea Pisano, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Urmas Raudsepp, Roshin Raj, Ad Stoffelen, Simon Van Gennip, Pierre Veillard, and Chunxue Yang
State Planet, 4-osr8, 2, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-2-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-2-2024, 2024
Karina von Schuckmann, Lorena Moreira, Mathilde Cancet, Flora Gues, Emmanuelle Autret, Jonathan Baker, Clément Bricaud, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Lluis Castrillo, Lijing Cheng, Frederic Chevallier, Daniele Ciani, Alvaro de Pascual-Collar, Vincenzo De Toma, Marie Drevillon, Claudia Fanelli, Gilles Garric, Marion Gehlen, Rianne Giesen, Kevin Hodges, Doroteaciro Iovino, Simon Jandt-Scheelke, Eric Jansen, Melanie Juza, Ioanna Karagali, Thomas Lavergne, Simona Masina, Ronan McAdam, Audrey Minière, Helen Morrison, Tabea Rebekka Panteleit, Andrea Pisano, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Ad Stoffelen, Sulian Thual, Simon Van Gennip, Pierre Veillard, Chunxue Yang, and Hao Zuo
State Planet, 4-osr8, 1, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, 2024
Vincenzo de Toma, Daniele Ciani, Yassmin Hesham Essa, Chunxue Yang, Vincenzo Artale, Andrea Pisano, Davide Cavaliere, Rosalia Santoleri, and Andrea Storto
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 5145–5165, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5145-2024, 2024
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This study explores methods to reconstruct diurnal variations in skin sea surface temperature in a model of the Mediterranean Sea. Our new approach, considering chlorophyll concentration, enhances spatial and temporal variations in the warm layer. Comparative analysis shows context-dependent improvements. The proposed "chlorophyll-interactive" method brings the surface net total heat flux closer to zero annually, despite a net heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere.
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Short summary
Regional climate models are a fundamental tool for a very large number of applications and are being increasingly used within climate services, together with other complementary approaches. Here, we introduce a new regional coupled model, intended to be later extended to a full Earth system model, for climate investigations within the Mediterranean region, coupled data assimilation experiments, and several downscaling exercises (reanalyses and long-range predictions).
Regional climate models are a fundamental tool for a very large number of applications and are...
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