North Atlantic MOC variability and the Mediterranean Outflow: a box-model study

Sandro Calmanti; Vincenzo Artale; Alfonso Sutera

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2006.00176.x

North Atlantic MOC variability and the Mediterranean Outflow: a box-model study

Tellus

Volume 58 (2006): Issue 3

By: Sandro Calmanti, Vincenzo Artale and Alfonso Sutera

Open Access

|Jan 2006

Abstract

A simple box-model is used to investigate the effect of intermediate level heat/freshwater fluxes on the variability of the oceanic meridional overturning circulation. The model includes a simple representation of the spreading of the Mediterranean Outflow Water in the North Atlantic. We identify an internal advective feedback affecting the amplitude of the thermohaline oscillations. When a salinity gradient is maintained in the ocean interior the oscillations are amplified. Instead, if the intermediate level fluxes are spread in the ocean deep layers, the model variability is reduced. We suggest that this mechanism may be relevant for climate variability on interdecadal timescales.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2006.00176.x | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 416 - 423

Submitted on: Nov 16, 2004

Accepted on: Nov 7, 2005

Published on: Jan 1, 2006

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2006 Sandro Calmanti, Vincenzo Artale, Alfonso Sutera, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 58 (2006): Issue 3