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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ftubpotsdam:oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:35338 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, Carl-Friedrich Feulner, G. 2013 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35338 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 eng eng https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35338 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Institut für Physik und Astronomie article doc-type:article 2013 ftubpotsdam https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 2022-07-28T20:45:43Z 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 3a 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice University of Potsdam: publish.UP Climate of the Past 9 3 1321 1330 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Potsdam: publish.UP |
op_collection_id |
ftubpotsdam |
language |
English |
topic |
Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
spellingShingle |
Institut für Physik und Astronomie Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich Feulner, G. A volcanically triggered regime shift in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean as a possible origin of the Little Ice Age |
topic_facet |
Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
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 3a 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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich Feulner, G. |
author_facet |
Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich Feulner, G. |
author_sort |
Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich |
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 |
2013 |
url |
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35338 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 |
genre |
Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Nordic Sea North Atlantic Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35338 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1321-2013 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1321 |
op_container_end_page |
1330 |
_version_ |
1766115176262664192 |