A modelling study of the 1976 climate regime shift in the North Pacific Ocean ...

• Main Author: Wu, Qiuying
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: aleutian low; Subarctic; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0053204; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0053204

During the 1976 climate regime shift, the Aleutian low deepened. Many studies have shown that the oceanic shift was mainly driven by the atmospheric dynamics. In this thesis numerical studies to investigate the oceanic interdecadal variation as the result of the 1976 climate shift have been carried out with the GFDL OGCM. Two interdecadal experiments are performed. One is forced by monthly wind stress climatology for 1976- 1988 and relaxed to monthly SST climatology from the same time period. The other is forced by monthly wind stress climatology for 1952-1975 and monthly SST climatology from the same time period. The same sea surface salinity monthly climatology data is used throughout all the experiments. The simulated ocean circulations exhibit significant interdecadal variations. The gyre circulations are spun up both in the subarctic region and the subtropical region, except in the northern and eastern part of the Gulf of Alaska where the gyral circulation is weakened. The large scale surface cooling in ...