Stability of the thermohaline circulation in a simple coupled model

Gerrit Lohmann; Rüdiger Gerdes; Deliang Chen

doi:10.3402/tellusa.v48i3.12072

Stability of the thermohaline circulation in a simple coupled model

Tellus

Volume 48 (1996): Issue 3

By: Gerrit Lohmann, Rüdiger Gerdes and Deliang Chen

Open Access

|Jan 1996

Abstract

In an analytical study, the stability of the thermohaline circulation with respect to freshwater perturbations in high latitudes is investigated. The study is based on a coupled ocean and atmosphere box model in an idealized North Atlantic geometry. The box model provides a qualitative understanding of how the thermohaline circulation is affected by feedback mechanisms associated with changes in atmospheric transports of heat and moisture. Within a linear analysis, we examine the stability of the thermohaline circulation for a range of different atmospheric boundary conditions. The stability of the coupled system depends on the imposed transport parameterizations and the basic state. For the underlying non-linear system, we examine the sensitivity with respect to the strength of salinity perturbation.

References

Birchfield , G. E . 1989 . A coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model: temperature versus salinity effects on the thermohaline circulation . Climate Dynamics 4 , 57 – 71 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bolton , D . 1980 . The computation of equivalent potential temperature . Month. Weath. Rev . 108 , 1046 – 1053 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Branscome , L. E . 1983 . A parameterization of transient eddy heat flux on a beta plane . J. Atm. Sci . 40 , 2508 – 2521 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bretherton , F. P . 1982 . Ocean climate modeling . Prog. Oceanogr . 11 , 93 – 129 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Broecker , W. S. and Peng , T.-H . 1989 . The oceanic salt pump. Does it contribute to the glacial-interglacial difference in atmospheric CO2 content? Global Biochem . Cycles 3 , 215 – 239 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bryan , F . 1986 . High latitude salinity effects and inter-hemispheric thermohaline circulations . Nature 323 , 301 – 304 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Chen , D. , Gerdes , R. and Lohmann , G . 1995 . A 1-D atmospheric energy balance model developed for ocean modelling . Theor. App!. Climatol . 51 , 25 – 38 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dickson , R. R. and Brown , J . 1994 . The production of North Atlantic Deep Water: Sources, rates and path-ways . J. Geophys. Res . 99 ( C6 ), 12319 – 12341 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dickson , R. R. , Meincke , J. , Malmberg , S. A. and Lee , A. J . 1988 . The “Great Salinity Anomaly” in the northern Atlantic 1968-1972 . Prog. Oceanogr . 20 , 103 – 151 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Green , J. S. A . 1970 . Transport properties of large-scale eddies and the general circulation of the atmosphere . Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc . 96 , 157 – 185 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Haney , R. L . 1971 . Surface thermal boundary conditions for ocean circulation models . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 1 , 241 – 248 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Keigwin , L. D. , Jones , G. A. , Lehmann , S. J. and Boyle , E. A . 1991 . Deglacial meltwater discharge, North Atlantic deep circulation, and abrupt climate change . J. Geophys. Res . 96 , 16811 – 16826 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lohmann , G. , Gerdes , R. and Chen , D . 1995 . Sensitivity of the thermohaline circulation in coupled oceanic GCM-atmospheric EBM experiments . Climate Dynamics , in press .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Maas , L. R. M . 1994 . A simple model for the three-dimensional thermally and wind-driven ocean circulation . Tellus 46A , 671 – 680 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Manabe , S. and Stouffer , R. J . 1993 . Century-scale effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on the ocean-atmosphere system . Nature 364 , 215 – 218 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Marotzke , J . 1990 . Instabilities and multiple equilibria of the thermohaline circulation . PhD Thesis, Kiel University, 126 pp.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Marotzke , J. , Welander , P. and Willebrand , J . 1988 . Instability and multiple steady states in a meridional-plane model of the thermohaline circulation . Tellus 40A , 162 – 172 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Mikolajewicz , U. and Maier-Reimer , E . 1994 . Mixed boundary conditions in ocean general circulation models and their influence on the stability of the model’s conveyer belt . J. Geophys. Res . 99 ( C11 ), 22633 – 22644 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nakamura , M. , Stone , P. H. and Marotzke , J . 1994 . Destabilization of the thermohaline circulation by atmospheric eddy transports . J. Climate 7 , 1870 – 1882 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Oberhuber , J. M . 1988 . An atlas based on the GOADS data set. The budgets of heat, buoyancy and turbulence kinetic energy at the surface of the global ocean. Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Report No. 15.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Oort , A. H. and Peixoto , J. P . 1983 . Global angular momentum and energy balance requirements from observations . Adv. Geophys . 25 , 355 – 490 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Power , S. B. and Kleeman , R . 1994 . Surface heat flux parameterizations and the response of OGCMs to high latitude freshening . Tellus 46A , 86 – 95 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rahmstorf , S . 1994 . Rapid climate transitions in a coupled ocean-atmosphere model . Nature 372 , 82 – 85 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rahmstorf , S. and Willebrand , J . 1995 . The role of the temperature feedback in stabilizing the thermohaline circulation . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 25 , 787 – 805 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sarnthein , M. , Winn , K. , Jung , S. J. A. , Duplessy , J.-C. , Labeyrie , L. , Erlenkeuser , H. and Ganssen , G . 1994 . Changes in east Atlantic deep water circulation over the last 30,000 years: Eight time slice reconstructions . Palaeoceanogr . 9 , 209 – 267 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schopf , P. S . 1983 . On equatorial waves and El Nino. II: Effects of air-sea thermal coupling . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 21 , 1725 – 1739 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stocker , T. F. , Wright , D. G. and Mysak , L. A . 1992 . A zonally averaged, coupled ocean-atmosphere model for paleoclimate studies . J. Climate 5 , 773 – 797 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stommel , H. M . 1961 . Thermohaline convection with two stable regimes of flow . Tellus 13 , 224 – 230 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stommel , H. M . 1993 . A conjectural regulating mechanism for determining the thermohaline structure of the oceanic mixed layer . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 23 , 142 – 148 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stone , P. H. and Miller , D. A . 1980 . Empirical relations between seasonal changes in meridional fluxes of heat . J. Atm. Sci . 37 , 1708 – 1721 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stone , P. H. and Yao , M. S . 1990 . Development of a two-dimensional zonally averaged statistical-dynam-ical model. Part III. The parameterization of the eddy fluxes of heat and moisture . J. Climate 3 , 726 – 740 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tang , B. and Weaver , A. J . 1995 . Climate stability as deduced from an idealized coupled atmosphere-ocean model . Climate Dynamics 11 , 141 – 150 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Trefethen , L. N. , Trefethen , A. E. , Reddy , S. C. and Driscoll , T. A . 1993 . Hydrodynamic stability without eigenvalues . Science 261 , 578 – 584 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Weaver , A. J. and Sarachick , E. S . 1991 . The role of mixed boundary conditions in numerical models of the ocean’s climate . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 21 , 1470 – 1473 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Weaver , A. J. , Sarachick , E. S. and Marotzke , J . 1991 . Freshwater flux forcing of decadal and interdecadal oceanic variability . Nature 353 , 836 – 838 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Vallis , G. K . 1982 . A statistical-dynamical climate model with a simple hydrological cycle . Tellus 34 , 211 – 227 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Zaucker , F. and Broecker , W. S . 1992 . The influence of atmospheric moisture transport on fresh water balance of the Atlantic drainage basin: General circulation model simulations and observations . J. Geophys. Res . 97 , 2765 – 2773 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Zhang , S. , Greatbatch , R. J. and Lin , C. A . 1993 . A reexamination of the polar halocline catastrophe and implications for coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling . J. Phys. Oceanogr . 23 , 287 – 299 .
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v48i3.12072 | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

Journal RSS Feed

Language: English

Page range: 465 - 476

Submitted on: Feb 8, 1995

Accepted on: Oct 16, 1995

Published on: Jan 1, 1996

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 1996 Gerrit Lohmann, Rüdiger Gerdes, Deliang Chen, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 48 (1996): Issue 3