Noice-Induced Transitions in a simplified model of the thermohaline circulation
A simplified box ocean model for the North Atlantic is used to study the influence of multiplicative short-term climate variability on the stability and long-term dynamics of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. A timescale separation between fast temperature and slow salinity fluctuations i...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2000
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/11037/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/11037/1/Tim2000g.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21497 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21497.d001 |
| Summary: | A simplified box ocean model for the North Atlantic is used to study the influence of multiplicative short-term climate variability on the stability and long-term dynamics of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. A timescale separation between fast temperature and slow salinity fluctuations is used to decouple the dynamical equations resulting in a multiplicative stochastic differential equation for salinity. As a result the qualitative behaviour and the stability of the thermohaline circulation become a function of the noise level. This can be understood in terms of the concept of noise-induced transitions. Furthermore, the role of non-vanishing noise autocorrelation times on the dynamics of the thermohaline circulation is investigated. Red Noise temperature forcing generates new equilibria, which do not have a deterministic counterpart. Our study suggests that noise-induced transitions might have climate relevance. |
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