Century-scale variability in a randomly forced, two-dimensional thermohaline ocean circulation model

Mysak, Lawrence A.; Stocker, Thomas F.; Huang, Fu-Ying

doi:10.1007/bf00208091

Cited by 48 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Paleoclimate variations would then not be due to switching among very different THC equilibria, except perhaps for among the modest variations on the NPP solution due to changes in the location of convection noted by Rahmstorf. Changes in the THC such as those noted in paleoclimate records can occur due to many other sources: changes in boundary conditions, stochastic forcing about a single equilibrium (e.g., Mikolajewicz and Maier-Reimer 1990;Mysak et al 1993), and internal THC variability (Weaver et al , 1993Stocker and Mysak 1992;Delworth et al 1993Delworth et al , 1997Marotzke 1994;Chen and Ghil 1995;and references therein). Indeed, Veum et al (1992) argue based on timing considerations that switching between equilibria of the THC could not have been the cause of either the termination of the last glacial maximum or the onset of the Younger Dryas.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imperfections of the Thermohaline Circulation: Latitudinal Asymmetry and Preferred Northern Sinking*

Dijkstra¹,

Neelin²

2000

J. Climate

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The present Atlantic thermohaline circulation is dominated by deep water formation in the north despite the fact that surface buoyancy forcing has relatively modest latitudinal asymmetry. Many studies have shown that even with buoyancy forcing that is symmetric about the equator, spontaneous symmetry breaking can produce a single overturning cell with intense sinking in the north. This occurs by salt advection at sufficiently large freshwater forcing. In this symmetry-breaking case, a southern sinking solution and a symmetric solution are also possible. A simple coupled ocean-atmosphere model of the zonally averaged thermohaline circulation is used to examine the effect of latitudinal asymmetries in the boundary conditions. The greater continental area in the northern hemisphere, combined with the slight asymmetry in the observed fresh-water flux, induce a strong preference for the northern sinking solution. Examining the relation to the solution under symmetric conditions, the salt-advection mechanism still acts to enhance the overturning circulation of the northern sinking branch, but multiple equilibria are much less likely to occur within the realistic parameter range. The most plausible shift between equilibria for paleoclimate applications would be between a strong northern sinking branch and a weak northern sinking branch that is an asymmetric version of the thermally driven solution. However, this is possible only in a very limited range of parameters. There is a substantial parameter range where the northern sinking branch is unique. The role of the fractional region of air-sea interaction at each latitude is substantial in producing north-south asymmetry.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imperfections of the Thermohaline Circulation: Latitudinal Asymmetry and Preferred Northern Sinking*

Dijkstra¹,

Neelin²

2000

J. Climate

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“…Century-scale variability in the thermohaline circulation of the oceans has been reported, e.g. by Mysak et al (1993) and Aeberhardt et al (2000). This variation can modify the large-scale exchanges of heat between the atmosphere and the oceans and between high and low latitudes (Aeberhardt et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

A potential century–scale rhythm in six major palaeoclimatic records in the northern hemisphere

Ogurtsov

Jungner

Lindholm

2007

Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography

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. Six millennial proxy records of temperature in the northern hemisphere were analysed using both the Fourier and wavelet approaches. We found that the analysed temperature proxies have appreciable synchrony at multidecadal and centennial time scales. These data also show evidence for the presence of a roughly regular large‐scale rhythm with a periodicity of 50–130 years in the climate of the northern hemisphere over the last millennium. It is shown that the amplitude of this variation might reach 0.20–0.28°C and contribute appreciably to the rise of global temperature over the first part of the 20th century. Possible origins of the global centennial climatic cycles are discussed.

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“…Indeed, several previous studies (e.g. Stocker and Wright, 1991;Mysak et al, 1993;Winton and Sarachik, 1993;Hughes and Weaver, 1994;Weaver and Hughes, 1994;Sakai and Peltier, 1997;Winton, 1997;Marotzke and Scott, 1999), based on ocean models of various complexities, have been devoted to the dynamical behavior of the ocean and raised the possibility for the ocean to fall into an oscillatory behavior at the millennial time-scale. Most of these studies were mainly focused on the North Atlantic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millennial-scale oscillations in the Southern Ocean in response to atmospheric CO2 increase

Álvarez-Solas

Charbit

Ramstein

et al. 2011

Global and Planetary Change

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Century-scale variability in a randomly forced, two-dimensional thermohaline ocean circulation model

Cited by 48 publications

References 28 publications

Imperfections of the Thermohaline Circulation: Latitudinal Asymmetry and Preferred Northern Sinking*

Imperfections of the Thermohaline Circulation: Latitudinal Asymmetry and Preferred Northern Sinking*

A potential century–scale rhythm in six major palaeoclimatic records in the northern hemisphere

Millennial-scale oscillations in the Southern Ocean in response to atmospheric CO2 increase

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