As seawater is moved about by the different types of ocean flow, the pressure at the ocean bottom changes with time and location. We show that such bottom pressure variations are represented reasonably well by high-resolution climate models and that in some regions, like the Arctic Ocean, the intensity of the pressure fluctuations will likely increase under global warming. These insights are useful for the design of future satellite missions that will track mass variations in the Earth system.

Antarctic meltwater affects ocean stratification and temperature, which in turn influences the rate of ice shelf melting—a coupling missing in most climate models. We analyze a suite of climate models with added meltwater to explore this feedback in different regions. While meltwater generally enhances ocean warming and melt, in West Antarctica most models simulate coastal cooling, suggesting a negative feedback that could slow future ice loss there.

The study assesses the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) precipitation products by estimating hydrological drought recovery time (DRT) using satellite gravimetry data, Jet Propulsion Laboratory mass concentration solution (JPL mascon), and Global Gravity-based Groundwater Project (G3P) terrestrial water storage (TWS) products. The findings reveal that DRTs from GPCC and GPCP are comparable, and JPL mascon shows longer DRT, while G3P demonstrates greater consistency. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of precipitation and water storage dynamics and are essential for meteorological and hydrological research.

This study presents a method to make the spatial resolution of global Water Storage Compartments (WSCs) compatible with terrestrial water storage (TWS) data from GRACE missions. The method compares the spatial structure of the WSCs and TWS by considering the correlation between neighboring grid cells. An isotropic Gaussian filter with an optimal filter width of 250 km is found to be the most suitable, ensuring compatibility for consistent comparison with GRACE data in hydrological applications.

Vertical mixing is an important process, for example, for tropical sea surface temperature, but cannot be resolved by ocean models. Comparisons of mixing schemes and settings have usually been done with a single model, sometimes yielding conflicting results. We systematically compare two widely used schemes with different parameter settings in two different ocean models and show that most effects from mixing scheme parameter changes are model-dependent.