Changes in ocean vertical heat transport with global warming
Changes in ocean vertical heat transport with global warming
Heat transport between the surface and deep ocean strongly influences transient climate change. Mechanisms setting this transport are investigated using coupled climate models and by projecting ocean circulation into the temperature-depth diagram. In this diagram, a “cold cell” cools the deep ocean through the downwelling of Antarctic waters and upwelling of warmer waters and is balanced by warming due to a “warm cell,” coincident with the interhemispheric overturning and previously linked to wind and haline forcing. With anthropogenic warming, the cold cell collapses while the warm cell continues to warm the deep ocean. Simulations with increasingly strong warm cells, set by their mean Southern Hemisphere winds, exhibit increasing deep-ocean warming in response to the same anthropogenic forcing. It is argued that the partition between components of the circulation which cool and warm the deep ocean in the preindustrial climate is a key determinant of ocean vertical heat transport with global warming.
ocean heat uptake, overturning circulation, climate modeling, vertical advection, water masses, thermodynamic coordinates
4940-4948
Zika, Jan D.
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Laliberté, Frédéric
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Mudryk, Lawrence R.
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Sijp, Willem P.
c9ef7770-5649-46b9-b92e-c73babca2a77
Nurser, A.J. George
2493ef9a-21e9-4d8b-9c32-08677e7e145a
28 June 2015
Zika, Jan D.
1843cce7-77ce-4ef6-9f79-bcf4f9db30e5
Laliberté, Frédéric
49e2d8b7-11ab-4d65-8d8e-d4eb46ee3c43
Mudryk, Lawrence R.
a16dede0-c299-417e-bb11-0a1c2db78f64
Sijp, Willem P.
c9ef7770-5649-46b9-b92e-c73babca2a77
Nurser, A.J. George
2493ef9a-21e9-4d8b-9c32-08677e7e145a
Zika, Jan D., Laliberté, Frédéric, Mudryk, Lawrence R., Sijp, Willem P. and Nurser, A.J. George
(2015)
Changes in ocean vertical heat transport with global warming.
Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (12), .
(doi:10.1002/2015GL064156).
Abstract
Heat transport between the surface and deep ocean strongly influences transient climate change. Mechanisms setting this transport are investigated using coupled climate models and by projecting ocean circulation into the temperature-depth diagram. In this diagram, a “cold cell” cools the deep ocean through the downwelling of Antarctic waters and upwelling of warmer waters and is balanced by warming due to a “warm cell,” coincident with the interhemispheric overturning and previously linked to wind and haline forcing. With anthropogenic warming, the cold cell collapses while the warm cell continues to warm the deep ocean. Simulations with increasingly strong warm cells, set by their mean Southern Hemisphere winds, exhibit increasing deep-ocean warming in response to the same anthropogenic forcing. It is argued that the partition between components of the circulation which cool and warm the deep ocean in the preindustrial climate is a key determinant of ocean vertical heat transport with global warming.
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Published date: 28 June 2015
Keywords:
ocean heat uptake, overturning circulation, climate modeling, vertical advection, water masses, thermodynamic coordinates
Organisations:
Marine Systems Modelling, Physical Oceanography
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 378542
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378542
ISSN: 0094-8276
PURE UUID: f2ef70ac-8bca-4357-bbc2-5ba998318556
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Date deposited: 30 Jun 2015 08:46
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:24
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Contributors
Author:
Jan D. Zika
Author:
Frédéric Laliberté
Author:
Lawrence R. Mudryk
Author:
Willem P. Sijp
Author:
A.J. George Nurser
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