Local grid refinement in New Zealand’s Earth System Model: Tasman Sea ocean circulation improvements and super‐gyre circulation Implications

Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (2020)

We describe the model development of the New Zealand Earth System Model and assess its performance against the model on which it is based (United Kingdom Earth System Model) and observations.

The main difference between both models is that the oceans around New Zealand in the New Zealand Earth System Model are more precisely modeled, due to a refined ocean model mesh in this region.

That results in a more accurate oceanic circulation around New Zealand in the New Zealand Earth System Model compared to the United Kingdom Earth System Model and reduced model biases of temperature and salinity.