Diagnosing the entropy budget of a climate model

Klaus Fraedrich; Frank Lunkeit

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2008.00338.x

Diagnosing the entropy budget of a climate model

Tellus

Volume 60 (2008): Issue 5

By: Klaus Fraedrich and Frank Lunkeit

Open Access

|Jan 2008

Abstract

A general circulation model (GCM) of intermediate complexity (Planet Simulator) is subjected to an analysis of the entropy budget and its sensitivity. The entropy production is computed directly based on temperature and temperature tendencies and estimated indirectly based on boundary fluxes. For indirect estimates, the model shows reasonably good agreement with observations. The direct computation indicates deficits of the indirect measures, as they, for example, overestimate the material entropy production (that is, the production by turbulent fluxes). Sensitivity analyses of entropy production are provided, which, depending on changing parameters, hint to a possible applicability of maximum entropy production (MEP) under the constrained dynamics of a complex GCM.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2008.00338.x | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 921 - 931

Submitted on: Oct 26, 2007

Accepted on: Apr 14, 2008

Published on: Jan 1, 2008

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2008 Klaus Fraedrich, Frank Lunkeit, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 60 (2008): Issue 5