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
Average process length variation of the marine dinoflagellate cyst Operculodinium centrocarpum in the tropical and Southern Hemisphere Oceans: Assessing its potential as a palaeosalinity proxy
Thomas Verleye,Kenneth Neil Mertens,Marty Young,Marty Young,Barrie Dale,Andrew McMinn,Louis Scott,Karin A F Zonneveld,Stephen Louwye +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the morphological variability of the dinoflagellate cyst Operculodinium centrocarpum (resting cyst of Protoceratium reticulatum) in core-top samples distributed over the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics in relation to sea surface temperature (SST) and sea-surface salinity (SSS) at the corresponding sites.
Journal ArticleDOI
A minimal model for wind- and mixing-driven overturning threshold behavior for both driving mechanisms
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a minimal conceptual model for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation which incorporates the advection of salinity and the basic dynamics of the oceanic pycnocline.
Journal ArticleDOI
Observable, low-order dynamical controls on thresholds of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the dynamics of thresholds of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in an Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM) and a simple box model.
Journal ArticleDOI
Sensitivities of deep‐ocean heat uptake and heat content to surface fluxes and subgrid‐scale parameters in an ocean general circulation model with idealized geometry
TL;DR: In this article, the sensitivity of the net heat flux into the deep ocean (Qnet) and of the deep-ocean heat content (DOC) below 700 m are studied using an ocean general circulation model and its adjoint.
Journal ArticleDOI
The contrast between Atlantic and Pacific surface water fluxes
TL;DR: The Atlantic Ocean is known to have higher sea surface salinity than the Pacific Ocean at all latitudes at all levels of the North Atlantic and is associated with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and deep water formation as discussed by the authors.
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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