Asymmetric response of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation to freshwater anomalies in a strongly-eddying global ocean model

Sandra-Esther Brunnabend; Henk A. Dijkstra

doi:10.1080/16000870.2017.1299283

Asymmetric response of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation to freshwater anomalies in a strongly-eddying global ocean model

Tellus

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1

By: Sandra-Esther Brunnabend and Henk A. Dijkstra

Open Access

|Jan 2017

Abstract

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) responds sensitively to density changes in regions of deepwater formation. In this paper, we investigate the nonlinear response of the AMOC to large amplitude freshwater changes around Greenland using a strongly-eddying global ocean model. Due to a 0.5 Sv freshwater input, the maximum AMOC at 35°N decreases by about 50% over a 45 year period. The AMOC does not recover over a period of 50 years when the freshwater input is ceased at year 45. However, when reversing the sign of the freshwater input at year 45, the AMOC needs only about 10 years to fully recover. The mechanism that causes this asymmetric response in the AMOC is clarified using water mass transformation theory.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2017.1299283 | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 1299283 - 1299283

Submitted on: Dec 22, 2016

Accepted on: Jan 23, 2017

Published on: Jan 1, 2017

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

AMOC,

high-resolution ocean modeling,

hosing,

Parallel Ocean Program

© 2017 Sandra-Esther Brunnabend, Henk A. Dijkstra, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1