Is the windstress essential for the global meridional overturning circulation
We use a global coupled atmosphere-ocean sea-ice model of intermediate complexity to demonstrate that wind-forcing is a crucial element to sustain meridional overturning flow in the Atlantic. Neglecting wind-stress in our multi-century-long simulations leads to a complete shutdown of the conveyor be...
| Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AGU (American Geophysical Union)
2003
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/2398/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/2398/1/Timmermann_et_al-2004-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL018777 |
| Summary: | We use a global coupled atmosphere-ocean sea-ice model of intermediate complexity to demonstrate that wind-forcing is a crucial element to sustain meridional overturning flow in the Atlantic. Neglecting wind-stress in our multi-century-long simulations leads to a complete shutdown of the conveyor belt circulation. This result may have tremendous impacts for an assessment of the sensitivity of 2-d climate models which typically do not capture wind-driven gyres. It is argued that wind effects may be a key element in determining the fate and length of a collapsed THC state. Possible paleo implications will be discussed. |
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