Journal ArticleDOI
On the freshwater forcing and transport of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation
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In this article, it is argued that the freshwater loss to the atmosphere arises mainly in the subtropical South Atlantic and is balanced by northward freshwater transport in the wind-driven sub-tropical gyre, while the thermohaline circulation transports freshwater southward.Abstract:
The 'conveyor belt' circulation of the Atlantic Ocean transports large amounts of heat northward, acting as a heating system for the northern North Atlantic region. It is widely thought that this circulation is driven by atmospheric freshwater export from the Atlantic catchment region, and that it transports freshwater northward to balance the loss to the atmosphere. Using results from a simple conceptual model and a global circulation model, it is argued here that the freshwater loss to the atmosphere arises mainly in the subtropical South Atlantic and is balanced by northward freshwater transport in the wind-driven subtropical gyre, while the thermohaline circulation transports freshwater southward. It is further argued that the direction of freshwater transport is closely linked to the dynamical regime and stability of the 'conveyor belt': if its freshwater transport is indeed southward, then its flow is purely thermally driven and inhibited by the freshwater forcing. In this case the circulation is not far from Stommel's saddle-node bifurcation, and a circulation state without NADW formation would also be stable.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Asynchronous deposition of ice-rafted layers in the Nordic seas and North Atlantic Ocean
TL;DR: In this paper, a lack of widespread systematic correlations between ice-rafted debris layers in different sediment cores from the Nordic seas, and between the Nordic layers and the North Atlantic Heinrich layers was found.
Journal ArticleDOI
Solar irradiance forcing of centennial climate variability during the Holocene
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the ECBilt model to simulate climate variability during the Holocene in two 10,000-year experiments using the intermediate-complexity ECBilt models and showed that the response in atmospheric parameters to the irradiance forcing can be characterized as the direct response of a system with a large thermal inertia.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in High-Resolution Models
Joël J.-M. Hirschi,Bernard Barnier,Claus W. Böning,Arne Biastoch,Adam T. Blaker,Andrew C. Coward,Sergey Danilov,Sybren Drijfhout,Klaus Getzlaff,Stephen M. Griffies,Hiroyasu Hasumi,Helene T. Hewitt,Doroteaciro Iovino,Takao Kawasaki,Andrew E. Kiss,Nikolay Koldunov,Alice Marzocchi,Jennifer Mecking,Ben Moat,Jean-Marc Molines,Paul G. Myers,Thierry Penduff,Malcolm J. Roberts,Anne-Marie Tréguier,Dmitry Sein,Dmitry Sidorenko,Justin Small,Paul Spence,LuAnne Thompson,Wilbert Weijer,Xiaobiao Xu +30 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of high-resolution models of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) can be found, where the authors describe new insights into the AMOC provided by high resolution models.
Journal ArticleDOI
Characterization of the multiple equilibria regime in a global ocean model
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the physical characterization of the multiple equilibrium regime using a fully implicit global ocean model for which bifurcation diagrams can be explicitly computed, and a modification of an earlier suggested diagnostic of the presence of the MEC is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global warming and thermohaline circulation stability.
TL;DR: The Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) plays an important role in global climate, and theoretical and palaeoclimatic evidence points to the possibility of rapid changes in the strength of the THC, including a possible quasi–permanent shutdown.
References
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Climatological atlas of the world ocean
TL;DR: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.
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Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean
TL;DR: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.
Journal ArticleDOI
Normal Monthly Wind Stress Over the World Ocean with Error Estimates
Sol Hellerman,Mel Rosenstein +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, wind and air-minus-sea temperatures are calculated in a form suitable for determining stress by any bulk aerodynamics model in which the drag coefficient can be represented by six or less coefficients of a second-degree polynomial in wind speed and stability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Interocean Exchange of Thermocline Water
TL;DR: In this paper, it is proposed that this return flow is accomplished primarily within the ocean's warm water thermocline layer, where the main thermoclines of the ocean are linked as they participate in a thermohaline-driven global scale circulation cell associated with NADW formation.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Great Ocean Conveyor
TL;DR: The ocean's conveyor appears to be driven by the salt left behind as the result of water-vapor transport through the atmosphere from the Atlantic to the Pacific basin this paper.
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