Do nudging tendencies depend on the nudging timescale chosen in atmospheric models?

Here, the focus is on the momentum nudging tendencies themselves, rather than the atmospheric state that results from application of the method. The initial intent was to interpret these tendencies as a quantitative estimate of model error (net parameterization error in particular).

However, it was found that nudging tendencies depend strongly on the nudging time scale chosen, which is the primary result presented here. Reducing the nudging time scale reduces the difference between the model state and the target state, but much less so than the reduction in the nudging time scale, resulting in increased nudging tendencies. The dynamical core, in particular, appears to increasingly oppose nudging tendencies as the nudging time scale is reduced.