scholarly journals Investigating the Role of the Tibetan Plateau in the Formation of Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 3603-3617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Wen ◽  
Haijun Yang
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
High Salinity ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
The Kuroshio

AbstractThe effects of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) on the Pacific Ocean circulation are investigated using a fully coupled climate model. Sensitivity experiments are designed to demonstrate that the presence of the TP is the reason for the lack of strong deep water formation in the subpolar North Pacific, because removing the TP in the model would enable the establishment of the Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC). The processes involved are described in detail as follows. Removing the TP in the model would excite an anomalous high pressure over the subpolar North Pacific, causing anomalous Ekman downwelling that enhances surface water subduction north of 40°N. Removing the TP would also lead to less freshwater flux into the western Pacific, increasing sea surface salinity over the region. The high-salinity surface water can then be advected northward and eastward by the Kuroshio and its extension, subducting along the 26–27σθ isopycnal surfaces to the deeper ocean, which enables the formation of deep water in the North Pacific and the setup of the PMOC. Afterward, more high-salinity warm water would be transported from the tropics to the extratropics by the Kuroshio, leading to the establishment of the PMOC. The role of the Rocky Mountains is also examined in this study. We conclude that the Rocky Mountains may play a trivial role in modulating the meridional overturning circulations in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

scholarly journals Impact of North Atlantic Freshwater Forcing on the Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation under Glacial and Interglacial Conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (15) ◽  
pp. 4641-4659
Author(s):  
Hyo-Jeong Kim ◽  
Soon-Il An
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
The North ◽  
Freshwater Forcing ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract The Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) is not well known compared to the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), due to its absence today. However, considering PMOC development under different climate conditions shown by proxy and modeling studies, a better understanding of PMOC is appropriate to properly assess the past and future climate change associated with global ocean circulation. Here, the PMOC response to freshwater forcing in the North Atlantic (NA) is investigated using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity under glacial (i.e., Last Glacial Maximum) and interglacial [i.e., preindustrial with/without inflow through Bering Strait (BS)] conditions. The water hosing over NA led to the shutdown of the AMOC, which accompanied an active PMOC except for the preindustrial condition with the opening BS, indicating that the emergence of the PMOC is constrained by the freshwater inflow through the BS, which hinders its destabilization through enhancing ocean stratification. However, the closure of the BS itself could not explain how the sinking motion is maintained in the North Pacific. Here we found that various atmospheric and oceanic processes are involved to sustain the active PMOC. First, an atmospheric teleconnection associated with the collapsed AMOC encouraged the evaporation in the sinking region, causing buoyancy loss at the surface of the North Pacific. Second, the strengthened subpolar gyre transported saltier water northward, enhancing dense water formation. Finally, the vigorous upwelling in the Southern Ocean enabled a consistent mass supply to the sinking region, with the aid of enhanced westerlies.

scholarly journals Overturning circulation, nutrient limitation, and warming in the Glacial North Pacific

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (50) ◽  
pp. eabd1654
Author(s):  
J. W. B. Rae ◽  
W. R. Gray ◽  
R. C. J. Wills ◽  
I. Eisenman ◽  
B. Fitzhugh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
And Migration

Although the Pacific Ocean is a major reservoir of heat and CO2, and thus an important component of the global climate system, its circulation under different climatic conditions is poorly understood. Here, we present evidence that during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the North Pacific was better ventilated at intermediate depths and had surface waters with lower nutrients, higher salinity, and warmer temperatures compared to today. Modeling shows that this pattern is well explained by enhanced Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC), which brings warm, salty, and nutrient-poor subtropical waters to high latitudes. Enhanced PMOC at the LGM would have lowered atmospheric CO2—in part through synergy with the Southern Ocean—and supported an equable regional climate, which may have aided human habitability in Beringia, and migration from Asia to North America.

scholarly journals Difference between the North Atlantic and Pacific meridional overturning circulation in response to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 751-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baohuang Su ◽  
Dabang Jiang ◽  
Ran Zhang ◽  
Pierre Sepulchre ◽  
Gilles Ramstein
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Freshwater Flux ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Water Formation ◽  
Meridional Overturning

Abstract. The role of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in maintaining the large-scale overturning circulation in the Atlantic and Pacific is investigated using a coupled atmosphere–ocean model. For the present day with a realistic topography, model simulation shows a strong Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) but a near absence of the Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC), which are in good agreement with the present observations. In contrast, the simulation without the TP depicts a collapsed AMOC and a strong PMOC that dominates deep-water formation. The switch in deep-water formation between the two basins results from changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation and atmosphere–ocean feedback over the Atlantic and Pacific. The intensified westerly winds and increased freshwater flux over the North Atlantic cause an initial slowdown of the AMOC, while the weakened East Asian monsoon circulation and associated decreased freshwater flux over the North Pacific give rise to the initial intensification of the PMOC. The further decreased heat flux and the associated increase in sea-ice fraction promote the final AMOC collapse over the Atlantic, while the further increased heat flux leads to the final PMOC establishment over the Pacific. Although the simulations were performed in a cold world, it still importantly implicates that the uplift of the TP alone could have been a potential driver for the reorganization of PMOC–AMOC between the late Eocene and early Oligocene.

Decomposing the time-mean Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its variability with latitude.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Jonathan ◽  
Mike Bell ◽  
Helen Johnson ◽  
David Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Boundary Density ◽  
Meridional Overturning

<p>The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulations (AMOC) is crucial to our global climate, transporting heat and nutrients around the globe. Detecting  potential climate change signals first requires a careful characterisation of inherent natural AMOC variability. Using a hierarchy of global coupled model  control runs (HadGEM-GC3.1, HighResMIP) we decompose the overturning circulation as the sum of (near surface) Ekman, (depth-dependent) bottom velocity, eastern and western boundary density components, as a function of latitude. This decomposition proves a useful low-dimensional characterisation of the full 3-D overturning circulation. In particular, the decomposition provides a means to investigate and quantify the constraints which boundary information imposes on the overturning, and the relative role of eastern versus western contributions on different timescales. </p><p>The basin-wide time-mean contribution of each boundary component to the expected streamfunction is investigated as a function of depth, latitude and spatial resolution. Regression modelling supplemented by Correlation Adjusted coRrelation (CAR) score diagnostics provide a natural ranking of the contributions of the various components in explaining the variability of the total streamfunction. Results reveal the dominant role of the bottom component, western boundary and Ekman components at short time-scales, and of boundary density components at decadal and longer timescales.</p>

scholarly journals Reassessing the Effect of Cloud Type on Earth’s Energy Balance in the Age of Active Spaceborne Observations. Part II: Atmospheric Heating

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (19) ◽  
pp. 6219-6236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Hang ◽  
Tristan S. L’Ecuyer ◽  
David S. Henderson ◽  
Alexander V. Matus ◽  
Zhien Wang
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Regional Warming ◽  
Atmospheric Heating ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
Subtropical Oceans ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Global Mean

Abstract The role of clouds in modulating vertically integrated atmospheric heating is investigated using CloudSat’s multisensor radiative flux dataset. On the global mean, clouds are found to induce a net atmospheric heating of 0.07 ± 0.08 K day−1 that derives largely from 0.06 ± 0.07 K day−1 of enhanced shortwave absorption and a small, 0.01 ± 0.04 K day−1 reduction of longwave cooling. However, this small global average longwave effect results from the near cancellation of much larger regional warming by multilayered cloud systems in the tropics and cooling from stratocumulus clouds in subtropical oceans. Clouds are observed to warm the tropical atmosphere by 0.23 K day−1 and cool the polar atmosphere by −0.13 K day−1 enhancing required zonal heat redistribution by the meridional overturning circulation. Zonal asymmetries in the occurrence of multilayered clouds that are more frequent in the Northern Hemisphere and stratocumulus that occur more frequently over the southern oceans also leads to 3 times as much cloud heating in the Northern Hemisphere (0.1 K day−1) than the Southern Hemisphere (0.04 K day−1). These findings suggest that clouds very likely make the strongest contribution to the annual mean atmospheric energy imbalance between the hemispheres (2.0 ± 3.5 PW).

scholarly journals Effects of Ocean Slow Response under Low Warming Targets

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 477-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shang-Min Long ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Yan Du ◽  
Qinyu Liu ◽  
Xiao-Tong Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Ocean Warming ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Slow Response ◽  
Intercomparison Project ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
Near Future

AbstractThe 2015 Paris Agreement proposed targets to limit global-mean surface temperature (GMST) rise well below 2°C relative to preindustrial level by 2100, requiring a cease in the radiative forcing (RF) increase in the near future. In response to changing RF, the deep ocean responds slowly (ocean slow response), in contrast to the fast ocean mixed layer adjustment. The role of the ocean slow response under low warming targets is investigated using representative concentration pathway (RCP) 2.6 simulations from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. In RCP2.6, the deep ocean continues to warm while RF decreases after reaching a peak. The deep ocean warming helps to shape the trajectories of GMST and fuels persistent thermosteric sea level rise. A diagnostic method is used to decompose further changes after the RF peak into a slow warming component under constant peak RF and a cooling component due to the decreasing RF. Specifically, the slow warming component amounts to 0.2°C (0.6°C) by 2100 (2300), raising the hurdle for achieving the low warming targets. When RF declines, the deep ocean warming takes place in all basins but is the most pronounced in the Southern Ocean and Atlantic Ocean where surface heat uptake is the largest. The climatology and change of meridional overturning circulation are both important for the deep ocean warming. To keep the GMST rise at a low level, substantial decrease in RF is required to offset the warming effect from the ocean slow response.

scholarly journals Antarctic Sea Ice Control on the Depth of North Atlantic Deep Water

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 2537-2551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis-Philippe Nadeau ◽  
Raffaele Ferrari ◽  
Malte F. Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Ice Formation ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
Antarctic Sea Ice ◽  
Meridional Overturning

Abstract Changes in deep-ocean circulation and stratification have been argued to contribute to climatic shifts between glacial and interglacial climates by affecting the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. It has been recently proposed that such changes are associated with variations in Antarctic sea ice through two possible mechanisms: an increased latitudinal extent of Antarctic sea ice and an increased rate of Antarctic sea ice formation. Both mechanisms lead to an upward shift of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) above depths where diapycnal mixing is strong (above 2000 m), thus decoupling the AMOC from the abyssal overturning circulation. Here, these two hypotheses are tested using a series of idealized two-basin ocean simulations. To investigate independently the effect of an increased latitudinal ice extent from the effect of an increased ice formation rate, sea ice is parameterized as a latitude strip over which the buoyancy flux is negative. The results suggest that both mechanisms can effectively decouple the two cells of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC), and that their effects are additive. To illustrate the role of Antarctic sea ice in decoupling the AMOC and the abyssal overturning cell, the age of deep-water masses is estimated. An increase in both the sea ice extent and its formation rate yields a dramatic “aging” of deep-water masses if the sea ice is thick and acts as a lid, suppressing air–sea fluxes. The key role of vertical mixing is highlighted by comparing results using different profiles of vertical diffusivity. The implications of an increase in water mass ages for storing carbon in the deep ocean are discussed.

What Causes the AMOC to Weaken in CMIP5?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 1535-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Levang ◽  
Raymond W. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Geostrophic Balance ◽  
Warming Scenario ◽  
Salinity Changes ◽  
The North ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
Freshwater Forcing ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
Surface Buoyancy

AbstractIn a transient warming scenario, the North Atlantic is influenced by a complex pattern of surface buoyancy flux changes that ultimately weaken the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Here we study the AMOC response in the CMIP5 experiment, using the near-geostrophic balance of the AMOC on interannual time scales to identify the role of temperature and salinity changes in altering the circulation. The thermal wind relationship is used to quantify changes in the zonal density gradients that control the strength of the flow. At 40°N, where the overturning cell is at its strongest, weakening of the AMOC is largely driven by warming between 1000- and 2000-m depth along the western margin. Despite significant subpolar surface freshening, salinity changes are small in the deep branch of the circulation. This is likely due to the influence of anomalously salty water in the subpolar intermediate layers, which is carried northward from the subtropics in the upper limb of the AMOC. In the upper 1000 m at 40°N, salty anomalies due to increased evaporation largely cancel the buoyancy increase due to warming. Therefore, in CMIP5, temperature dynamics are responsible for AMOC weakening, while freshwater forcing instead acts to strengthen the circulation in the net. These results indicate that past modeling studies of AMOC weakening, which rely on freshwater hosing in the subpolar gyre, may not be directly applicable to a more complex warming scenario.

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