Application of a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Radiative-Convective Model to Study the
Temperature Responses to Spectral Solar Variability on Decadal and Centennial Time
Scales
Guoyong Wen1,2, Robert F. Cahalan1, Peter Pilewskie3, and Jerald W. Harder3
1
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; 2 GESTART/Morgan State
University; 3 LASP, University of Colorado-Boulder
We describe a time and height dependent RCM that couples the ocean with the
atmosphere, from upper stratosphere to deep ocean. We study the temperature responses
computed using the RCM, assuming different scenarios of spectral solar variability on
decadal to centennial time scales. We show that the temperature responses are sensitive to the
relative phases of UV, visible, and near-IR variations in solar spectral. In particular the outof-phase variations such as those seen by SIM on SORCE have much larger impact on upper
stratospheric temperature and significantly smaller impact on surface and ocean
temperatures.