Editing HadCM3 (section)

== Slab model (HadSM3) ==

The atmospheric model may be run coupled to a simpler "slab ocean" rather than the full dynamic ocean. This is faster (and requires less memory) than the full model, but lacks dynamical feedbacks from the ocean, which are incorporated into the full coupled ocean–atmosphere models used to make projections of climate change out to 2100. The slab model needs a calibration phase in which the ocean temperatures are held to climatology while it calculates the "flux correction", i.e., extra ocean-atmosphere fluxes needed to keep the model ocean in balance (the model ocean does not include currents; these fluxes to some extent replace the heat that would be transported by the missing currents). After this calibration period the model may be run in climate mode.