Horizontal circulation across density surfaces contributes substantially to the long-term mean northern Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Details

• Journal Title:
  Communications Earth & Environment
• Personal Author:
  Zhang, Rong ; Thomas, Matthew
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
• Description:
  The Greenland Sea is often viewed as the northern terminus of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. It has also been proposed that the shutdown of open-ocean deep convection in the Labrador or Greenland Seas would substantially weaken the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here we analyze Robust Diagnostic Calculations conducted in a high-resolution global coupled climate model constrained by observed hydrographic climatology to provide a holistic picture of the long-term mean Atlantic Overturning Circulation at northern high latitudes. Our results suggest that the Arctic Ocean, not the Greenland Sea, is the northern terminus of the mean Atlantic Overturning Circulation; open-ocean deep convection, in either the Labrador or Greenland Seas, contributes minimally to the mean Atlantic Overturning Circulation, hence it would not necessarily be substantially weakened by a shutdown of open-ocean deep convection; horizontal circulation across sloping isopycnals contributes substantially (more than 40%) to the maximum mean northeastern subpolar Atlantic Overturning Circulation.
• Keywords:
  AMOC Arctic Ocean Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Greenland Sea
• Source:
  Communications Earth & Environment, 2(1)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00182-y
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:2964389a16ee6172ce0f04e4e7a53c26186f21691461b882b0ec8f1287e8248d
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/32280/noaa_32280_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.77 MB ]