Climatological spin-up of the ECBILT ocean model

In the present WR we evaluate a 4000 year spinup of the ocean component of the
KNMI ECBILT coupled climate model. The simulation was forced by monthly mean observed windstress data and by relaxation towards observed monthly mean climatological SST and SSS data.
Goal of the experiment was to assess the
performance of the stand alone OGCM in order to have a reference for further experiments in which the OGCM is part of a coupled system.

Our conclusions are that the model works properly and as intended: relevant processes such as thermohaline and wind driven circulations are operating and relevant structures such as the main global watermasses and thermocline are present, all qualitatively similar to observations. Quantitatively, the climatological state of the model is sorewhat less satisfactory, compared to other OGCMs of comparable costs. We hypothesise that most of the deficiencies are related to the flat bottom and simplified equation of state.