Mechanisms Maintaining Southern Ocean Meridional Heat Transport under Projected Wind Forcing

Mechanisms of the Southern Ocean 1 meridional heat transport response to 2 projected wind changes

A Theory of Interdecadal Climate Variability of the North Pacific Ocean–Atmosphere System*

A linear coupled model for the atmosphere–upper-ocean system is proposed to highlight the mechanisms of decadal to interdecadal climate variability in the North Pacific. In this model, wind stress anomalies over the North Pacific are related to anomalies in the meridional temperature gradient of the upper ocean. The latter depends upon air–sea thermodynamical feedbacks and meridional heat trans...

Separating the influence of projected changes in air temperature and wind on patterns of sea level change and ocean heat content

We present ocean model sensitivity experiments aimed at separating the influence of the projected changes in the ‘‘thermal’’ (near-surface air temperature) and ‘‘wind’’ (near-surface winds) forcing on the patterns of sea level and ocean heat content. In the North Atlantic, the distribution of sea level change is more due to the ‘‘thermal’’ forcing, whereas it is more due to the ‘‘wind’’ forcing...

Using Eulerian and Lagrangian Approaches to Investigate Wind-Driven Changes in the Southern Ocean Abyssal Circulation

This study uses a global ocean eddy-permitting climate model to explore the export of abyssal water from the Southern Ocean and its sensitivity to projected twenty-first-century poleward-intensifying Southern Oceanwind stress. The abyssal flow pathways and transport are investigated using a combination of Lagrangian and Eulerian techniques. In an Eulerian format, the equatorand poleward flows w...

Remote Wind-Driven Overturning in the Absence of the Drake Passage Effect

Zonal wind stress over the Southern Ocean may be responsible for a significant fraction of the meridional overturning associated with North Atlantic Deep Water. Numerical experiments by Tsujino and Suginohara imply that the zonal periodicity of the Southern Ocean is not necessary for midlatitude westerly winds to drive strong remote meridional overturning. Here, idealized numerical experiments ...