CGD Special Seminar- Towards A Particle-in-Cell wave model in coupled climate models

Ocean surface waves play a crucial role in Earth system models, influencing momentum transfer, ice breakup, CO2 fluxes, and mixed-layer dynamics. Unlike third-generation spectral models, wave information needed for mixing, air-sea, and wave-ice coupling is minimal, relying mainly on dominant frequency, direction, and energy. Given that modest errors in sea state have limited impact, the high computational cost of spectral models is a concern for next-generation Earth System Models (ESMs). We provide and update about our new wave modeling framework Particle-in-Cell for Efficient Swell (PiCLES), a cost-efficient wave modeling framework for coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice interactions. This model uses Lagrangian wave growth solutions with the Particle-In-Cell method and offers a scalable, periodically meshing approach that drastically reduces the state vector size. We will show first global simulations of PiCLES, estimate its performance compared to spectral model hindcasts, and discuss how PiCLES wind-sea simulations only can improve sea-state dependent paramerizations