Atlantic thermohaline circulation and its response to increasing CO2 in a coupled atmosphere‐ocean model
- 15 November 2001
- journal article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 28 (22) , 4223-4226
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2001gl013325
Abstract
We discuss aspects of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) and its response to increased greenhouse gas concentration, using a coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) whose oceanic component is a new hybrid‐isopycnal model. Two 200‐year model integrations are carried out—a control run assuming fixed atmospheric composition and a perturbation run assuming gradual doubling of CO2. We employ no flux corrections at the air‐sea interface, nor do we spin up the ocean prior to coupling. The surface conditions in the control run stabilize after several decades. When doubling CO2 at the rate of 1% per year, the model responds with a 2°C increase in global mean surface air temperature (SAT) after 200 years and a virtually unchanged Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The latter is maintained by a salinity increase that counteracts the effect of global warming on the surface buoyancy.This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
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