LETTERS Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation

In this study, a mechanism is demonstrated whereby a large reduction in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) can induce global-scale changes in the Tropics that are consistent with paleoevidence of the global synchronization of millennial-scale abrupt climate change. Using GFDL’s newly develo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rong Zhang, Thomas L. Delworth
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2005
Subjects:
Indian
Pacific
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.143.4142
http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/reference/bibliography/2005/roz0501.pdf
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Summary:In this study, a mechanism is demonstrated whereby a large reduction in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) can induce global-scale changes in the Tropics that are consistent with paleoevidence of the global synchronization of millennial-scale abrupt climate change. Using GFDL’s newly developed global coupled ocean–atmosphere model (CM2.0), the global response to a sustained addition of freshwater to the model’s North Atlantic is simulated. This freshwater forcing substantially weakens the Atlantic THC, resulting in a southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone over the Atlantic and Pacific, an El Niño–like pattern in the southeastern tropical Pacific, and weakened Indian and Asian summer monsoons through air–sea interactions. 1.

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