A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario
Geologic evidence suggests that the Earth may have been completely covered in ice in the distant past, a state known as Snowball Earth. This is still the subject of controversy, and has been the focus of modeling work from low-dimensional models up to state-of-the-art general circulation models. In...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0dd6eff52ddb4912a835446cf140e731 2023-05-15T18:18:44+02:00 A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario D. Comeau D. A. Kurtze J. M. Restrepo 2016-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 https://doaj.org/article/0dd6eff52ddb4912a835446cf140e731 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/7/937/2016/esd-7-937-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 2190-4979 2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 https://doaj.org/article/0dd6eff52ddb4912a835446cf140e731 Earth System Dynamics, Vol 7, Iss 4, Pp 937-951 (2016) Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 2022-12-30T23:40:10Z Geologic evidence suggests that the Earth may have been completely covered in ice in the distant past, a state known as Snowball Earth. This is still the subject of controversy, and has been the focus of modeling work from low-dimensional models up to state-of-the-art general circulation models. In our present global climate, the ocean plays a large role in redistributing heat from the equatorial regions to high latitudes, and as an important part of the global heat budget, its role in the initiation a Snowball Earth, and the subsequent climate, is of great interest. To better understand the role of oceanic heat transport in the initiation of Snowball Earth, and the resulting global ice covered climate state, the goal of this inquiry is twofold: we wish to propose the least complex model that can capture the Snowball Earth scenario as well as the present-day climate with partial ice cover, and we want to determine the relative importance of oceanic heat transport. To do this, we develop a simple model, incorporating thermohaline dynamics from traditional box ocean models, a radiative balance from energy balance models, and the more contemporary "sea glacier" model to account for viscous flow effects of extremely thick sea ice. The resulting model, consisting of dynamic ocean and ice components, is able to reproduce both Snowball Earth and present-day conditions through reasonable changes in forcing parameters. We find that including or neglecting oceanic heat transport may lead to vastly different global climate states, and also that the parameterization of under-ice heat transfer in the ice–ocean coupling plays a key role in the resulting global climate state, demonstrating the regulatory effect of dynamic ocean heat transport. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Earth System Dynamics 7 4 937 951 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
spellingShingle |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 D. Comeau D. A. Kurtze J. M. Restrepo A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
topic_facet |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
description |
Geologic evidence suggests that the Earth may have been completely covered in ice in the distant past, a state known as Snowball Earth. This is still the subject of controversy, and has been the focus of modeling work from low-dimensional models up to state-of-the-art general circulation models. In our present global climate, the ocean plays a large role in redistributing heat from the equatorial regions to high latitudes, and as an important part of the global heat budget, its role in the initiation a Snowball Earth, and the subsequent climate, is of great interest. To better understand the role of oceanic heat transport in the initiation of Snowball Earth, and the resulting global ice covered climate state, the goal of this inquiry is twofold: we wish to propose the least complex model that can capture the Snowball Earth scenario as well as the present-day climate with partial ice cover, and we want to determine the relative importance of oceanic heat transport. To do this, we develop a simple model, incorporating thermohaline dynamics from traditional box ocean models, a radiative balance from energy balance models, and the more contemporary "sea glacier" model to account for viscous flow effects of extremely thick sea ice. The resulting model, consisting of dynamic ocean and ice components, is able to reproduce both Snowball Earth and present-day conditions through reasonable changes in forcing parameters. We find that including or neglecting oceanic heat transport may lead to vastly different global climate states, and also that the parameterization of under-ice heat transfer in the ice–ocean coupling plays a key role in the resulting global climate state, demonstrating the regulatory effect of dynamic ocean heat transport. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
D. Comeau D. A. Kurtze J. M. Restrepo |
author_facet |
D. Comeau D. A. Kurtze J. M. Restrepo |
author_sort |
D. Comeau |
title |
A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
title_short |
A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
title_full |
A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
title_fullStr |
A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
title_full_unstemmed |
A conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the Snowball Earth scenario |
title_sort |
conceptual model of oceanic heat transport in the snowball earth scenario |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 https://doaj.org/article/0dd6eff52ddb4912a835446cf140e731 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
Earth System Dynamics, Vol 7, Iss 4, Pp 937-951 (2016) |
op_relation |
http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/7/937/2016/esd-7-937-2016.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 2190-4979 2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 https://doaj.org/article/0dd6eff52ddb4912a835446cf140e731 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-937-2016 |
container_title |
Earth System Dynamics |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
937 |
op_container_end_page |
951 |
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1766195429470371840 |