Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Mechanisms Maintaining Southern Ocean Meridional Heat Transport under Projected Wind Forcing

Paul Spence Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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Oleg A. Saenko Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Environment Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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Carolina O. Dufour Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, CNRS/Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, and Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l’Environnement, CEA/CNRS/UVSQ/IPSL, Paris, France

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Julien Le Sommer Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, CNRS/Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

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Matthew H. England Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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Print Publication:
01 Nov 2012
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-12-03.1
Page(s):
1923–1931
Restricted access

Abstract

Meridional heat transport (MHT) in the Southern Ocean (SO) and its components are analyzed with two eddy-permitting climate models. The two models present a consistent picture of the MHT response to projected twenty-first-century changes in SO winds. In agreement with a recent analysis based on an ocean data synthesis product, much of the MHT in the SO is found to be due to the time-mean fields of meridional velocity and temperature. The change in the net MHT tends to be small relative to the interannual variability at most SO latitudes. However, both models exhibit significant changes at most latitudes south of 30°S in individual components of MHT. A simple framework wherein changes in the eddy and mean heat transports tend to compensate each other is not supported by the authors’ results. Instead, the MHT response is composed of sizeable contributions from essentially all of the MHT components, with the eddy and mean heat transports often having the same sign.

Corresponding author address: Paul Spence, Climate Change Research Centre, Level 4, Mathews Building, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: paul.spence@unsw.edu.au

Abstract

Meridional heat transport (MHT) in the Southern Ocean (SO) and its components are analyzed with two eddy-permitting climate models. The two models present a consistent picture of the MHT response to projected twenty-first-century changes in SO winds. In agreement with a recent analysis based on an ocean data synthesis product, much of the MHT in the SO is found to be due to the time-mean fields of meridional velocity and temperature. The change in the net MHT tends to be small relative to the interannual variability at most SO latitudes. However, both models exhibit significant changes at most latitudes south of 30°S in individual components of MHT. A simple framework wherein changes in the eddy and mean heat transports tend to compensate each other is not supported by the authors’ results. Instead, the MHT response is composed of sizeable contributions from essentially all of the MHT components, with the eddy and mean heat transports often having the same sign.

Corresponding author address: Paul Spence, Climate Change Research Centre, Level 4, Mathews Building, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: paul.spence@unsw.edu.au
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