Reduced interdecadal variability of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation under global warming

Details

• Journal Title:
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States
• Personal Author:
  Cheng, Jun ; Liu, Zhengyu ; Zhang, Shaoqing ; Liu, Wei ; Dong, Lina ; Liu, Peng ; Li, Hongli
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
• Description:
  Interdecadal variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC-IV) plays an important role in climate variation and has significant societal impacts. Past climate reconstruction indicates that AMOC-IV has likely undergone significant changes. Despite some previous studies, responses of AMOC-IV to global warming remain unclear, in particular regarding its amplitude and time scale. In this study, we analyze the responses of AMOC-IV under various scenarios of future global warming in multiple models and find that AMOC-IV becomes weaker and shorter with enhanced global warming. From the present climate condition to the strongest future warming scenario, on average, the major period of AMOC-IV is shortened from ∼50 y to ∼20 y, and the amplitude is reduced by ∼60%. These reductions in period and amplitude of AMOC-IV are suggested to be associated with increased oceanic stratification under global warming and, in turn, the speedup of oceanic baroclinic Rossby waves.
• Keywords:
  Climatic changes
• Source:
  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 22; 113(12): 3175-3178.
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519827113
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4812739
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  PMC
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:588ca23660e5e2def50c530c48e05555d566fbfa4fcd5c4483d7296cac426fc5af4cb4fb0cc28f36d7bfc8e589667d7a7054a5e51f755c2f14927249da2fd32d
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/24368/noaa_24368_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 795.69 KB ]