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Simulation of Compound Flooding using River-Ocean Two-way Coupled E3SM Ensemble on Variable-resolution Meshes

Presentation Date
Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 2:10pm - Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 6:30pm
Location
MC - Poster Hall A-C - South
Authors

Author

Abstract

Compound flooding (CF) is driven by the river-ocean interactions in the coastal zone, particularly when coastal backwater propagates upstream and interacts with river discharge. The modeling of CF is limited in Earth System Models (ESMs) due to insufficient mesh resolution and loosely coupled river-ocean components. In this study, we present a novel multi-scale coupling framework within the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The new framework integrates global atmosphere, land and interactively coupled river and ocean models, with the land, river, and ocean models configured on variable-resolution meshes with refinements near the coastline. To evaluate this framework, we performed ensemble simulations of a CF event (Hurricane Irene) in a Mid-Atlantic estuary. The results demonstrate that with the novel framework, E3SM can reproduce river discharge and sea surface height reasonably well. The interactive river-ocean coupling improves the representation of coastal backwater effects at the terrestrial-aquatic interface, thus providing a valuable modeling tool for better understanding the river-estuary-ocean dynamics in extreme events under climate change. Notably, our results show that the most significant CF impacts occur when the highest storm surge generated by a tropical cyclone co-occurs with a moderate river discharge. This study highlights state-of-the-art modeling techniques developed within the global E3SM framework for simulating multi-scale coastal processes.

Category
Ocean Sciences
Funding Program Area(s)