Current Switching As A Mechanism For Rapid Climate Change ...

• Main Author: Rossby, T.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 1999 - O - Theme session 2024
• Subjects: Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; NADW; Nordic Seas; north atlantic current; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25637394; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Current_Switching_As_A_Mechanism_For_Rapid_Climate_Change/25637394

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.In this paper we suggest an oceanic mechanism for the sudden climate warming at the end of the last ice age. The process itself is quite simple, the path of the paleo-Gulf Stream (pGS) changes direction from that of a zonal current to today's North Atlantic Current east of the Grand Banks. The suddenness of the transition is accomplished through two steps, a northward shift in path of the pGS until it makes contact with the bathymetry of the southeast of the Grand Banks whereupon some of the warm waters lock onto the continental slope and flow north thereby effectively transporting warm salty water far into Subpolar waters. The arrival of these high salinity waters in the Nordic Seas sharply increases the production of NADW thereby ramping up the demand for more salty water. The resulting warm sea surface temperatures lead the climate change. ...