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Abstract Water mass transformation (WMT) in the North Atlantic plays a key role in driving the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its variability. Here, we analyze subpolar North Atlantic WMT in high‐ and low‐resolution versions of the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) and investigate whether differences in resolution and climatological WMT impact low‐frequency AMOC variability and the atmospheric response to this variability. We find that high‐resolution simulations reproduce the WMT found in a reanalysis‐forced high‐resolution ocean simulation more accurately than low‐resolution simulations. We also find that the low‐resolution simulations, including one forced with the same atmospheric reanalysis data, have larger biases in surface heat fluxes, sea‐surface temperatures, and salinities compared to the high‐resolution simulations. Despite these major climatological differences, the mechanisms of low‐frequency AMOC variability are similar in the high‐ and low‐resolution versions of CESM1. The Labrador Sea WMT plays a major role in driving AMOC variability, and a similar North Atlantic Oscillation‐like sea‐level pressure pattern leads AMOC changes. However, the high‐resolution simulation shows a pronounced atmospheric response to the AMOC variability not found in the low‐resolution version. The consistent role of Labrador Sea WMT in low‐frequency AMOC variability across high‐ and low‐resolution coupled simulations, including a simulation which accurately reproduces the WMT found in an atmospheric‐reanalysis‐forced high‐resolution ocean simulation, suggests that the mechanisms may be similar in nature.
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Mechanisms of Low-Frequency Variability in North Atlantic Ocean Heat Transport and AMOC
Abstract Ocean heat transport (OHT) plays a key role in climate and its variability. Here, we identify modes of low-frequency North Atlantic OHT variability by applying a low-frequency component analysis (LFCA) to output from three global climate models. The first low-frequency component (LFC), computed using this method, is an index of OHT variability that maximizes the ratio of low-frequency variance (occurring at decadal and longer timescales) to total variance. Lead-lag regressions of atmospheric and ocean variables onto the LFC timeseries illuminate the dominant mechanisms controlling low-frequency OHT variability. Anomalous northwesterly winds from eastern North America over the North Atlantic act to increase upper ocean density in the Labrador Sea region, enhancing deep convection, which later increases OHT via changes in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The strengthened AMOC carries warm, salty water into the subpolar gyre, reducing deep convection and weakening AMOC and OHT. This mechanism, where changes in AMOC and OHT are driven primarily by changes in Labrador Sea deep convection, holds not only in models where the climatological (i.e., time-mean) deep convection is concentrated in the Labrador Sea, but also in models where the climatological deep convection is concentrated in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian (GIN) Seas or the Irminger and Iceland Basins. These results suggest that despite recent observational evidence suggesting that the Labrador Sea plays a minor role in driving the climatological AMOC, the Labrador Sea may still play an important role in driving low-frequency variability in AMOC and OHT.
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- PAR ID:
- 10230743
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Climate
- ISSN:
- 0894-8755
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 68
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0614.1
