Work

Simulated Tropical Response to a Substantial Weakening of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: In this study, a mechanism is demonstrated whereby a large reduction in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) can induce global-scale changes in the Tropics that are consistent with paleoevidence of the global synchronization of millennial-scale abrupt climate change. Using GFDL’s newly developed global coupled ocean–atmosphere model (CM2.0), the global response to a sustained addition of freshwater to the model’s North Atlantic is simulated. This freshwater forcing substantially weakens the Atlantic THC, resulting in a southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone over the Atlantic and Pacific, an El Niño–like pattern in the southeastern tropical Pacific, and weakened Indian and Asian summer monsoons through air–sea interactions.

Source: Journal of Climate

DOI: 10.1175/jcli3460.1

Authors: Rong Zhang, Thomas L. Delworth

Institutions: NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Climate variability and models

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: bronze

OpenAlex ID: W2028658915