• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.245-258
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• 2006

We investigated seasonal variations of the upper ocean temperature and the mixed layer depth (MLD) in an eddy-permitting global ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to assess the OGCM perfermance. The OGCM is based on the GFDL MOM3 which has a horizontal resolution of 0.5 degree and 30 vertical levels. The OGCM was integrated for 68 years using a monthly-mean climatological wind stress forcing. The model sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity were restored to the Levitus climatology with a time scale of 30 days. Annual-mean model SST shows a cold bias $(<\;-2^{\circ}C)$ in the summer hemisphere and a warm bias $(>\;1^{\circ}C)$ in the winter hemisphere mainly due to the restoring boundary condition of temperature. The model MLD captures well the observed features in most areas, with a slightly deep bias. However, in the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea, the model shows significantly deeper MLD than the climatology-mainly due to weak salinity stratifications in the model. For amplitude of seasonal variation, the model SST is smaller $(1{\sim}3^{\circ}C)$ than the observation largely due to the restoring surface boundary condition while the model MLD has larger seasonal variation $({\sim}50m)$. It is suggested that for more realistic simulation of the upper ocean structure in the present eddy-permitting ocean model, more refinements in the surface boundary condition for the thermohaline forcing and parameterization for vertical mixing are required, together with the incorporation of a sea-ice model.