Budgets for Decadal Variability in Pacific Ocean Heat Content

A slowdown in the rate of surface warming in the early 2000s led to renewed interest in the redistribution of ocean heat content (OHC) and its relationship with internal climate variability. We use the Community Earth System Model version 1 to study the relationship between OHC and the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), a major mode of decadal sea surface temperature variability in the Pacific Ocean. By comparing the relative contributions of surface heat flux and ocean dynamics to changes in OHC for different phases of the IPO, we try to identify the underlying physical processes involved. Our results suggest that during IPO phase transitions, changes of 0–300-m OHC across the northern extratropical Pacific are positively contributed by both surface heat flux and oceanic heat transport. By contrast, oceanic heat transport appears to drive the OHC changes in equatorial Pacific whereas surface heat flux acts as a damping term. During a positive IPO phase, weakened wind-driven circulation acts to increase the OHC in the equatorial Pacific while the enhanced evaporation acts to damp OHC anomalies. In the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension region, a dipole anomaly of zonal heat advection amplifies an OHC dipole anomaly that moves eastward, while strong turbulent heat fluxes act to dampen this OHC anomaly. In the northern subtropical Pacific, both the wind-driven evaporation change and the change of zonal heat advection along Kuroshio Extension contribute to the OHC change during phase transition. For the northern subpolar Pacific, both surface heat flux and enhanced meridional advection contribute to the positive OHC anomalies during the positive IPO phase.

Examining the role of varying surface pressure in the climate of early Earth

During the Archean Eon in 2.7 billion years ago, solar luminosity was about 75 % of the present-day level, but the surface temperature was suggested to similar to or even higher than modern. What mechanisms act to maintain the temperate climate of early Earth is not clearly known yet. Recent studies suggested that surface air pressure was different from the present level. How does varying surface air pressure influence the climate? Using an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a slab ocean with specified oceanic heat transport, we show that decreasing (increasing) surface pressure acts to cool (warm) the surface mainly because the greenhouse effect of pressure broadening becomes weaker (stronger). The effect of halfing or doubling the surface pressure on the global-mean surface temperature is about 10 K or even larger when ice albedo feedback or water vapor feedback is strong. If the surface pressure was 0.5 bar, a combination of a CO2 partial pressure of about 0.04 bar and an oceanic heat transport of twice the present-day level or a combination of a CO2 partial pressure of about 0.10 bar and an oceanic heat transport of half the present-day level is required to maintain a climate similar to modern, under a given CH4 partial pressure of 1 mbar. Future work with fully coupled atmosphere-ocean models is required to explore the strength of oceanic heat transport and with cloud resolving models to examine the strength of cloud radiative effect under different surface air pressures.

Northward oceanic heat transport in the main branch of the Norwegian Atlantic Current over the late Holocene

The Norwegian Atlantic Current represents the northernmost reaches of the (sub)surface limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Its shelf-edge branch, the Norwegian Atlantic Slope Current (NwASC), is of particular interest as it seems to be the main conduit for advected heat towards the Arctic. The objective of this study was to investigate northward oceanic heat transport in the NwASC on longer, geologically meaningful time scales. To this end, we reconstructed variations in the strength of the NwASC over the late Holocene using the sortable-silt method. We then analysed the statistical relationship between our palaeo-flow reconstructions and published upper-ocean hydrography proxy records from the same location on the mid-Norwegian Margin. Our sortable-silt time series show prominent multi-decadal to multi-centennial variability, but no clear long-term trend over the past 4200 years. These records we thus interpret to represent perturbations in a relatively stable late-Holocene mean flow. Our in-depth statistical analysis indicates that upper-ocean temperatures at the mid-Norwegian Margin may have varied independently from the strength of the NwASC on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales over the past few millennia.

A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario

Geologic evidence suggests that the Earth may have been completely covered in ice in the distant past, a state known as Snowball Earth. This is still the subject of controversy, and has been the focus of modeling work from low-dimensional models up to state-of-the-art general circulation models. In our present global climate, the ocean plays a large role in redistributing heat from the equatorial regions to high latitudes, and as an important part of the global heat budget, its role in the initiation a Snowball Earth, and the subsequent climate, is of great interest. To better understand the role of oceanic heat transport in the initiation of Snowball Earth, and the resulting global ice covered climate state, the goal of this inquiry is twofold: we wish to propose the least complex model that can capture the Snowball Earth scenario as well as the present-day climate with partial ice cover, and we want to determine the relative importance of oceanic heat transport. To do this, we develop a simple model, incorporating thermohaline dynamics from traditional box ocean models, a radiative balance from energy balance models, and the more contemporary "sea glacier" model to account for viscous flow effects of extremely thick sea ice. The resulting model, consisting of dynamic ocean and ice components, is able to reproduce both Snowball Earth and present-day conditions through reasonable changes in forcing parameters. We find that including or neglecting oceanic heat transport may lead to vastly different global climate states, and also that the parameterization of under-ice heat transfer in the ice–ocean coupling plays a key role in the resulting global climate state, demonstrating the regulatory effect of dynamic ocean heat transport.

A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario

Geologic evidence suggests that the Earth may have been completely covered in ice in the distant past, a state known as Snowball Earth. This is still the subject of controversy, and has been the focus of modeling work from low dimensional models up to state of the art general circulation models. In our present global climate, the ocean plays a large role in redistributing heat from the equatorial regions to high latitudes, and as an important part of the global heat budget, its role in the initiation a Snowball Earth, and the subsequent climate, is of great interest. To better understand the role of oceanic heat transport in the initiation of Snowball Earth, and the resulting global ice covered climate state, the goal of this inquiry is two-fold: we wish to propose the least complex model that can capture the Snowball scenario as well as the present day climate with partial ice cover, and we want to determine the relative importance of oceanic heat transport. To do this, we develop a simple model, incorporating thermohaline dynamics from traditional box ocean models, a radiative balance from energy balance models, as well as the more contemporary "sea glacier" model to account for viscous flow effects of extremely thick sea ice. The resulting model, consisting of dynamic ocean and ice components, is able to reproduce both Snowball Earth as well as present day conditions through reasonable changes in forcing parameters. We find that including or neglecting oceanic heat transport may lead to vastly different global climate states, and also that the parameterization of under ice heat transfer in the ice/ocean coupling, plays a key role in the resulting global climate state, demonstrating the regulatory effect of dynamic ocean heat transport. Furthermore we find that the ocean circulation direction exhibits bistability in the Snowball Earth regime.