Cover Journal of Climate
Journal of Climate

  • Ahmad, J., and Coauthors, 1998: The interaction between global warming and the thermohaline circulation. Hydrometeorology and Climatology, A. Franchini, Ed., Environmental Dynamics Series, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, in press.

  • Branscome, L. E., 1983: A parameterization of transient eddy heat flux on a beta-plane. J. Atmos. Sci.,40, 2508–2521.

  • Gates, W., and Coauthors, 1996: Climate models—Evaluation. Climate Change 1995, J. Houghton, L. Meira Filho, B. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg, and K. Maskell, Eds., Cambridge Unviersity Press, 229–284.

  • Gleckler, P., and Coauthors, 1995: Cloud-radiative effects on implied oceanic energy transports as simulated by atmospheric general circulation models. Geophys. Res. Lett.,22, 791–794.

  • Gutowski, W. J., E. Lindemulder, and K. Jovaag, 1995: Temperature–dependent daily variability of precipitable water in special sensor microwave/imager observations. J. Geophys. Res.,100 (D11), 22 971–22 980.

  • Held, I. M., 1978: The vertical scale of an unstable baroclinic wave and its importance for eddy heat flux parameterizations. J. Atmos. Sci.,35, 572–576.

  • ——, and V. Larichev, 1996: A scaling theory for horizontally homogeneous, baroclinically unstable flow on a beta plane. J. Atmos. Sci.,53, 946–952.

  • Leovy, C. B., 1973: Exchange of water vapor between the atmosphere and surface of Mars. Icarus,18, 120–125.

  • Maier-Reimer, E., U. Mikolajewicz, and K. Hasselmann, 1993: Mean circulation of the Hamburg LSG OGCM and its sensitivity to the thermohaline surface forcing. J. Phys. Oceanogr.,23, 731–757.

  • Manabe, S., and R. J. Stouffer, 1988: Two stable equilibria of a coupled ocean–atmosphere model. J. Climate,1, 841–866.

  • ——, and ——, 1994: Multiple-century response of a coupled ocean–atmosphere model to an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. J. Climate,7, 5–23.

  • Marotzke, J., 1996: Analysis of thermohaline feedbacks. Decadal Climate Variability: Dynamics and Predictability, D. Anderson and J. Willebrand, Eds., Springer-Verlag, 333–378.

  • ——, and P. H. Stone, 1995: Atmospheric transports, the thermohaline circulation, and flux adjustments in a simple coupled model. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 25, 1350–1364.

  • Nakamura, M., P. H. Stone, and J. Marotzke, 1994: Destabilization of the thermohaline circulation by atmospheric eddy transports. J. Climate,7, 1870–1882.

  • Oort, A. H., and J. P. Peixoto, 1983: Global angular momentum and energy balance requirements from observations. Advances in Geophysics, Vol. 25, Academic Press, 355–490.

  • Saravanan, R., and J. C. McWilliams, 1995: Multiple equilibria, natural variability, and climate transitions in an idealized ocean–atmosphere model. J. Climate,8, 2296–2323.

  • Sarnthein, M., K. Winn, S. Jung, J. Duplessy, L. Labeyrie, H. Erlenkenser, and G. Ganssen, 1994: Changes in East Atlantic deepwater circulation over the last 30,000 years: Eight time slice reconstructions. Paleoceanography,9, 209–267.

  • Sausen, R. K. Barthol, and K. Hasselmann, 1988: Coupled ocean–atmosphere models with flux corrections. Climate Dyn.,2, 145–163.

  • Schiller, A., U. Mikolajewicz, and R. Voss, 1997: The stability of the thermohaline circulation in a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model. Climate Dyn., 13, 325–347.

  • Stommel, H., 1961: Thermohaline convection with two stable regimes of flow. Tellus,13, 224–230.

  • Stone, P. H., 1984: Feedbacks between dynamical heat fluxes and temperature structure in the atmosphere. Climate Processes and Climate Sensitivity, J. Hansen and T. Takahashi, Eds., Amer. Geophys. Union, 6–17.

  • ——, and D. A. Miller, 1980: Empirical relations between seasonal changes in meridional temperature gradients and meridional fluxes of heat. J. Atmos. Sci.,37, 1708–1721.

  • ——, and J. S. Risbey, 1990: On the limitations of general circulation climate models. Geophys. Res. Lett.,17, 2173–2176.

  • Zhou, S., and P. H. Stone, 1993: The role of large-scale eddies in the climate equilibrium. Part II: Variable static stability. J. Climate,6, 1871–1880.

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 0 0 0
Full Text Views 126 15 3
PDF Downloads 14 5 2
Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Destabilization of the Thermohaline Circulation by Atmospheric Transports: An Analytic Solution

Yuriy P. Krasovskiy1 and Peter H. Stone1
View More View Less
  • 1 Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Print Publication:
01 Jul 1998
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1998)011<1803:DOTTCB>2.0.CO;2
Page(s):
1803–1811
Restricted access

Abstract

The four-box coupled atmosphere–ocean model of Marotzke is solved analytically, by introducing the approximation that the effect of oceanic heat advection on ocean temperatures is small (but not negligible) compared to the effect of surface heat fluxes. The solutions are written in a form that displays how the stability of the thermohaline circulation depends on the relationship between atmospheric meridional transports of heat and moisture and the meridional temperature gradient. In the model, these relationships are assumed to be power laws with different exponents allowed for the dependence of the transports of heat and moisture on the gradient. The approximate analytic solutions are in good agreement with Marotzke’s exact numerical solutions, but show more generally how the destabilization of the thermohaline circulation depends on the sensitivity of the atmospheric transports to the meridional temperature gradient. The solutions are also used to calculate how the stability of the thermohaline circulation is changed if model errors are “corrected” by using conventional flux adjustments. Errors like those common in GCMs destabilize the model’s thermohaline circulation, even if conventional flux adjustments are used. However, the resulting errors in the magnitude of the critical perturbations necessary to destabilize the thermohaline circulation can be corrected by modifying transport efficiencies instead.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Peter H. Stone, Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307.

Email: phstone@mit.edu

Abstract

The four-box coupled atmosphere–ocean model of Marotzke is solved analytically, by introducing the approximation that the effect of oceanic heat advection on ocean temperatures is small (but not negligible) compared to the effect of surface heat fluxes. The solutions are written in a form that displays how the stability of the thermohaline circulation depends on the relationship between atmospheric meridional transports of heat and moisture and the meridional temperature gradient. In the model, these relationships are assumed to be power laws with different exponents allowed for the dependence of the transports of heat and moisture on the gradient. The approximate analytic solutions are in good agreement with Marotzke’s exact numerical solutions, but show more generally how the destabilization of the thermohaline circulation depends on the sensitivity of the atmospheric transports to the meridional temperature gradient. The solutions are also used to calculate how the stability of the thermohaline circulation is changed if model errors are “corrected” by using conventional flux adjustments. Errors like those common in GCMs destabilize the model’s thermohaline circulation, even if conventional flux adjustments are used. However, the resulting errors in the magnitude of the critical perturbations necessary to destabilize the thermohaline circulation can be corrected by modifying transport efficiencies instead.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Peter H. Stone, Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307.

Email: phstone@mit.edu

Save