2. THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION

THC in the Atlantic brings warm tropical water northward, raising SST ca. 4°C relative to SST at comparable latitudes in the Pacific (Levitus 1982). The warm SST in the North Atlantic provides heat and moisture to the atmosphere, thereby warming Greenland and western Europe by roughly 5–8 °C and inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: P. A. T. Higgins, Others Climate, Ecosystem Coupling
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Greenland
Pacific
Labrador Sea
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.337.415
http://www.stanford.edu/~mikemas/publications/Dynamics.pdf
Description
Summary:THC in the Atlantic brings warm tropical water northward, raising SST ca. 4°C relative to SST at comparable latitudes in the Pacific (Levitus 1982). The warm SST in the North Atlantic provides heat and moisture to the atmosphere, thereby warming Greenland and western Europe by roughly 5–8 °C and increasing precipitation throughout the region (Broecker 1997; Stocker & Marchal 2000). Temperature and salinity patterns in the Atlantic create the density differences that drive THC. As the warm surface waters move to higher northern latitudes, heat exchange with the atmosphere causes the water to cool and sink at two locations: one south of the GIS ridge in the Labrador Sea and the other north of the GIS ridge in the Greenland and Norwegian Seas (Killworth 1983;

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