The global thermohaline circulation plays a major role in regulating global climate, driven by the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water
Diapycnal mixing shapes the distribution of climatically important tracers, such as heat and carbon, as these are carried by dense water masses in the ocean interior. Here, we analyze a suite of observation‐based estimates of diapycnal mixing to assess its role within the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The rate of water mass transformation in the Atlantic Ocean's interior shows that there is a robust buoyancy increase in the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW, neutral density
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10400666
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- AGU Advances
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2576-604X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
Abstract (NADW) . ODP Site 1063 on the Bermuda Rise, at the interface of NADW and Southern Ocean‐sourced water, appears an ideal location to study the relationships between ocean circulation and climate. This study reports Nd isotope ratios at Site 1063 that extend to ~1 Ma. The data show Nd isotope values during portions of interglacials that are much lower than modern NADW. However, interglacial Nd isotope values at Site 607, located within the core of NADW, off the abyssal seafloor in the North Atlantic, are consistently similar to modern NADW. In contrast to glacial values, we infer that interglacial Nd isotopes at Site 1063 are not representative of NADW and do not solely record water mass mixing. We conclude that the low Ndisotope ratios reflect regional particle‐seawater exchange as a consequence of input of freshly ground bedrock from the Canadian shield, which is eroded into the North Atlantic during major ice sheet retreats. The result is a deep, thin, and regionally constrained layer of seawater tagged with this anomalous low Nd isotope signature that is unrepresentative of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation(AMOC) . We suggest that a benthic nepheloid layer, whose development is linked to the behavior of a deep‐recirculating gyre system, regulated by the interaction between the Gulf Stream and the deep western boundary current, facilitates the periodic masking of the Nd isotope signature of the North Atlantic AMOC end‐member in this region at these depths. -
Abstract Revolutionary observational arrays, together with a new generation of ocean and climate models, have provided new and intriguing insights into the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) over the last two decades. Theoretical models have also changed our view of the AMOC, providing a dynamical framework for understanding the new observations and the results of complex models. In this paper we review recent advances in conceptual understanding of the processes maintaining the AMOC. We discuss recent theoretical models that address issues such as the interplay between surface buoyancy and wind forcing, the extent to which the AMOC is adiabatic, the importance of mesoscale eddies, the interaction between the middepth North Atlantic Deep Water cell and the abyssal Antarctic Bottom Water cell, the role of basin geometry and bathymetry, and the importance of a three‐dimensional multiple‐basin perspective. We review new paradigms for deep water formation in the high‐latitude North Atlantic and the impact of diapycnal mixing on vertical motion in the ocean interior. And we discuss advances in our understanding of the AMOC's stability and its scaling with large‐scale meridional density gradients. Along with reviewing theories for the mean AMOC, we consider models of AMOC variability and discuss what we have learned from theory about the detection and meridional propagation of AMOC anomalies. Simple theoretical models remain a vital and powerful tool for articulating our understanding of the AMOC and identifying the processes that are most critical to represent accurately in the next generation of numerical ocean and climate models.
-
null (Ed.)Abstract Climate models consistently project (i) a decline in the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and (ii) a strengthening of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. These two processes suggest potentially conflicting tendencies of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC): a weakening AMOC due to changes in the North Atlantic but a strengthening AMOC due to changes in the Southern Ocean. Here we focus on the transient evolution of the global ocean overturning circulation in response to a perturbation to the NADW formation rate. We propose that the adjustment of the Indo-Pacific overturning circulation is a critical component in mediating AMOC changes. Using a hierarchy of ocean and climate models, we show that the Indo-Pacific overturning circulation provides the first response to AMOC changes through wave processes, whereas the Southern Ocean overturning circulation responds on longer (centennial to millennial) time scales that are determined by eddy diffusion processes. Changes in the Indo-Pacific overturning circulation compensate AMOC changes, which allows the Southern Ocean overturning circulation to evolve independently of the AMOC, at least over time scales up to many decades. In a warming climate, the Indo-Pacific develops an overturning circulation anomaly associated with the weakening AMOC that is characterized by a northward transport close to the surface and a southward transport in the deep ocean, which could effectively redistribute heat between the basins. Our results highlight the importance of interbasin exchange in the response of the global ocean overturning circulation to a changing climate.more » « less
-
Abstract A toy model for the deep ocean overturning circulation in multiple basins is presented and applied to study the role of buoyancy forcing and basin geometry in the ocean’s global overturning. The model reproduces the results from idealized general circulation model simulations and provides theoretical insights into the mechanisms that govern the structure of the overturning circulation. The results highlight the importance of the diabatic component of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) for the depth of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and for the interbasin exchange of deep ocean water masses. This diabatic component, which extends the upper cell in the Atlantic below the depth of adiabatic upwelling in the Southern Ocean, is shown to be sensitive to the global area-integrated diapycnal mixing rate and the density contrast between NADW and Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). The model also shows that the zonally averaged global overturning circulation is to zeroth-order independent of whether the ocean consists of one or multiple connected basins, but depends on the total length of the southern reentrant channel region (representing the Southern Ocean) and the global ocean area integrated diapycnal mixing. Common biases in single-basin simulations can thus be understood as a direct result of the reduced domain size.more » « less
-
Abstract Paleoproxy observations suggest that deep-ocean water-mass distributions were different at the Last Glacial Maximum than they are today. However, even modern deep-ocean water-mass distributions are not completely explained by observations of the modern ocean circulation. This paper investigates two processes that influence deep-ocean water-mass distributions: 1) interior downwelling caused by vertical mixing that increases in the downward direction and 2) isopycnal mixing. Passive tracers are used to assess how changes in the circulation and in the isopycnal-mixing coefficient impact deep-ocean water-mass distributions in an idealized two-basin model. We compare two circulations, one in which the upper cell of the overturning reaches to 4000-m depth and one in which it shoals to 2500-m depth. Previous work suggests that in the latter case the upper cell and the abyssal cell of the overturning are separate structures. Nonetheless, high concentrations of North Atlantic Water (NAW) are found in our model’s abyssal cell: these tracers are advected into the abyssal cell by interior downwelling caused by our vertical mixing profile, which increases in the downward direction. Further experiments suggest that the NAW concentration in the deep South Atlantic Ocean and in the deep Pacific Ocean is influenced by the isopycnal-mixing coefficient in the top 2000 m of the Southern Ocean. Both the strength and the vertical profile of isopycnal mixing are important for setting deep-ocean tracer concentrations. A 1D advection–diffusion model elucidates how NAW concentration depends on advective and diffusive processes.