The Influence of a near-bottom Transport Parameterization on the Sensitivity of the Thermohaline Circulation

• Main Author: Gerrit Lohmann
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.22.4773; http://www.mpimet.mpg.de/~lohmann.gerrit/./PSFILES/paper_over.ps

The effect of a near bottom transport scheme on the sensitivity of the thermohaline circulation is analyzed in a coupled model. In this model with idealized geometry of the Atlantic, it is shown that in the presence of a northern source of deep water, an accurate representation of the overflow process has a stabilizing effect on the thermohaline circulation for subpolar sea surface salinity perturbations. The large scale overturning circulation can be maintained in the presence of a continued deep water formation north of the sill. Experiments suggest that without a sufficient coupling across a sill in the northern North Atlantic, the response of the ocean's circulation to subpolar atmospheric variability may be too strong. 1