Comparison of a Z-level GPOM and the POM for the
Arctic-North Atlantic Oceans
Sirpa Hakkinen and Jelena Marshak
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 971, Greenbelt, MD 20771
The GPOM model is applied in a z-level configuration for the
Arctic - North Atlantic Basins as previously published for POM
(Mauritzen and Hakkinen, 1997; Hakkinen, 1999, 2000). The model
includes the same thermodynamic-dynamic ice model as embedded in
the POM version. The parameterizations remain the same, except the
horizontal viscosity had to be increased for the GPOM to counteract
the roughness of the step-wise topography. Overall, the
differences between the model versions are not major. The most
apparent differences are in the strength of the subpolar gyre, and
the vertical overturning stream function. The GPOM has a Gulf
Stream separation slightly north of Cape Hatteras which stabilizes
after year 8 of the spin-up. The meridional heat transport at 25N
is 1.2PW versus 1.4PW of the POM version.