White et al. (2026) Winter and summer stationary waves: An assessment of climate models

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-01-01
• Authors: Rachel H. White, Mingyu Park, Veeshan Narinesingh
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-15748-6.00021-6

Research Groups

• Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
• Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
• Department of Civil, Urban, Earth and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Republic of Korea
• NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, United States

Short Summary

This paper assesses the ability of CMIP6 climate models to simulate observed stationary wave patterns, their variability, and long-term trends in both hemispheres during summer and winter. It finds that CMIP6 models generally reproduce observed stationary wave patterns and short-term variability well, but struggle with decadal trends unless forced with observed sea surface temperatures.

Objective

• To assess the performance of the latest generation of climate models (CMIP6) in simulating observed stationary wave patterns, their short-term variability, and long-term (decadal) trends in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during summer and winter.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, focusing on Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
• Temporal Scale: Seasonal (summer, winter), short-term (within a season), interannual (year to year), and long-term (decadal trends).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: CMIP6 climate models (both atmosphere-ocean coupled and atmosphere-only configurations).
• Data sources: Observational data for stationary wave patterns and variability; observed sea surface temperature (SST) trends used for forcing atmosphere-only models.

Main Results

• CMIP6 models generally simulate observed stationary wave patterns in summer and winter well across both Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
• The models also accurately simulate the observed variability of stationary waves on short-term (within a season) and interannual timescales.
• Atmosphere-ocean coupled climate models do not well simulate observed longer-term (decadal) trends in stationary waves, primarily due to their inability to reproduce observed sea surface temperature (SST) pattern trends.
• When atmosphere-only climate models are forced with observed SST trends, they show significantly more similar long-term trends in stationary waves to those observed, although biases persist, particularly in high latitudes.

Contributions

• Provides a comprehensive assessment of CMIP6 models' capabilities in simulating stationary waves, covering patterns, short-term variability, and long-term trends.
• Highlights the critical role of accurate sea surface temperature simulation in reproducing observed decadal trends in stationary waves by coupled climate models.
• Differentiates the performance of atmosphere-ocean coupled versus atmosphere-only models when addressing long-term stationary wave trends.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{White2026Winter,
  author = {White, Rachel H. and Park, Mingyu and Narinesingh, Veeshan},
  title = {Winter and summer stationary waves: An assessment of climate models},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-15748-6.00021-6},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-15748-6.00021-6}
}