A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age
Among the climatological events of the last millennium, the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Climate Anomaly succeeded by the Little Ice Age are of exceptional importance. The origin of these regional climate anomalies remains a subject of debate and besides external influences like solar and volcanic a...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:cp18057 2023-05-15T17:24:14+02:00 A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age Schleussner, C. F. Feulner, G. 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/9/1321/2013/ eng eng doi:10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/9/1321/2013/ eISSN: 1814-9332 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 2020-07-20T16:25:27Z Among the climatological events of the last millennium, the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Climate Anomaly succeeded by the Little Ice Age are of exceptional importance. The origin of these regional climate anomalies remains a subject of debate and besides external influences like solar and volcanic activity, internal dynamics of the climate system might have also played a dominant role. Here, we present transient last millennium simulations of the fully coupled model of intermediate complexity Climber 3α forced with stochastically reconstructed wind-stress fields. Our results indicate that short-lived volcanic eruptions might have triggered a cascade of sea ice–ocean feedbacks in the North Atlantic, ultimately leading to a persistent regime shift in the ocean circulation. We find that an increase in the Nordic Sea sea-ice extent on decadal timescales as a consequence of major volcanic eruptions in our model leads to a spin-up of the subpolar gyre and a weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, eventually causing a persistent, basin-wide cooling. These results highlight the importance of regional climate feedbacks such as a regime shift in the subpolar gyre circulation for understanding the dynamics of past and future climate. Text Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Climate of the Past 9 3 1321 1330 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
Among the climatological events of the last millennium, the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Climate Anomaly succeeded by the Little Ice Age are of exceptional importance. The origin of these regional climate anomalies remains a subject of debate and besides external influences like solar and volcanic activity, internal dynamics of the climate system might have also played a dominant role. Here, we present transient last millennium simulations of the fully coupled model of intermediate complexity Climber 3α forced with stochastically reconstructed wind-stress fields. Our results indicate that short-lived volcanic eruptions might have triggered a cascade of sea ice–ocean feedbacks in the North Atlantic, ultimately leading to a persistent regime shift in the ocean circulation. We find that an increase in the Nordic Sea sea-ice extent on decadal timescales as a consequence of major volcanic eruptions in our model leads to a spin-up of the subpolar gyre and a weakened Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, eventually causing a persistent, basin-wide cooling. These results highlight the importance of regional climate feedbacks such as a regime shift in the subpolar gyre circulation for understanding the dynamics of past and future climate. |
format |
Text |
author |
Schleussner, C. F. Feulner, G. |
spellingShingle |
Schleussner, C. F. Feulner, G. A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
author_facet |
Schleussner, C. F. Feulner, G. |
author_sort |
Schleussner, C. F. |
title |
A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
title_short |
A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
title_full |
A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
title_fullStr |
A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
title_full_unstemmed |
A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
title_sort |
volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar north atlantic ocean as a possible origin of the little ice age |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/9/1321/2013/ |
genre |
Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
op_source |
eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/9/1321/2013/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
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9 |
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3 |
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1321 |
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1330 |
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1766115172843257856 |