Work

Collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation Induced by Precession: Sensitivity to Orbital Acceleration

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: While orbital forcing‐induced weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) potentially facilitated glacial initiation during the Quaternary glacial‐interglacial cycles, this mechanism has remained to be confirmed by atmosphere‐ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). Our simulations with an AOGCM demonstrate that without any freshwater hosing, a complete AMOC collapse can be achieved through precessional forcing alone under high eccentricity and relatively low atmospheric CO 2 level ( p CO 2 ). Crucially, the multi‐millennial timescale required for full AMOC response to precessional forcing suggests that the orbital acceleration techniques in AOGCM simulations, often adopted to save computation time, likely obscured detection of these abrupt AMOC transitions in previous studies.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters

DOI: 10.1029/2025gl115941

Authors: Haobo Liu, Yonggang Liu, Lorraine Lisiecki, Yu Gao, Ming Zhang, Qifan Lin

Institutions: Peking University, University of California, Santa Barbara

Language: English

Topic: Climate variability and models

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,190