JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE (2000) 15 (4) 319–328 Drake Passage and palaeoclimate

ABSTRACT: The effect of Drake Passage on the Earth’s climate is examined using an idealised coupled model. It is found that the opening of Drake Passage cools the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere by about 3°C and warms the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere by nearly the same amount....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: J. R. Toggweiler, H. Bjornsson
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC
ocean conveyor
coupled ocean circulation model
water
Antarctic
Drake Passage
Antarc*
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.394.9621
http://sam.ucsd.edu/sio219/toggweiler_bjornsson.pdf
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Summary:ABSTRACT: The effect of Drake Passage on the Earth’s climate is examined using an idealised coupled model. It is found that the opening of Drake Passage cools the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere by about 3°C and warms the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere by nearly the same amount. This study also attempts to determine whether the width and depth of the Drake Passage channel is likely to be an important factor in the thermal response. A deeper channel is shown to produce more southern cooling but the magnitude of the effect is not large. Channel geometry is relatively unimportant in the model because of a haline response that develops when the channel is first opened up. Published in 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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