Flux adjustment

To avoid the problem of coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) drifting into some unrealistic climate state, adjustment terms can be applied to the atmosphere-ocean fluxes of heat and moisture (and sometimes the surface stresses resulting from the effect of the wind on the ocean surface) before these fluxes are imposed on the model ocean and atmosphere. Because these adjustments are pre-computed and therefore independent of the coupled model integration, they are uncorrelated with the anomalies that develop during the integration. Chapter 8 of this report concludes that most models used in this report (Fourth Assessment Report AOGCMs) do not use flux adjustments, and that in general, fewer models use them.

Definition courtesy of IPCC AR4.