The impact of non-breaking surface waves in upper-ocean temperature simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

Widespread mismatches between proxy-based and modelling studies of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has limited better understanding about interglacial-glacial climate change. In this study, we incorporate non-breaking surface waves (NBW) induced mixing into an ocean model to assess the potential role of waves in changing a simulation of LGM upper oceans. Our results show a substantial 40 m subsurface warming introduced by surface waves in LGM summer, with larger magnitudes relative to the present-day ocean. At the ocean surface, according to the comparison between the proxy data and our simulations, the incorporation of the surface wave process into models can potentially decrease the model-data discrepancy for the LGM ocean. Therefore, our findings suggest that the inclusion of NBW is helpful in simulating glacial oceans.