Analyses of a 500-yr control integration with the non-flux-adjusted coupled atmosphere–sea ice–ocean model ECHAM5/Max-Planck-Institute Ocean Model (MPI-OM) show pronounced multidecadal fluctuations of the Atlantic overturning circulation and the associated meridional heat transport. The period of the oscillations is about 70–80 yr. The low-frequency variability of the meridional overturning cir...

Water vapor is not only Earth’s dominant greenhouse gas. Through the release of latent heat when it condenses, it also plays an active role in dynamic processes that shape the global circulation of the atmosphere and thus climate. Here we present an overview of how latent heat release affects atmosphere dynamics in a broad range of climates, ranging from extremely cold to extremely warm. Contra...

[1] The distributions of deep ocean DC data are often used to illustrate the rate of deep ocean circulation. The associated conventional C ages show a difference of 1000 years between the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean and a difference of another 1000 years between the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. These differences may be interpreted directly and mistakenly as the timescale of c...

The large-scale and mesoscale circulation of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea are simulated with an eddyresolving primitive-equation regional model (RM) of 1/16 resolution embedded in a general circulation model (GM) of the Mediterranean Sea of 1/8 resolution. The RM is forced by a monthly climatology of heat fluxes, precipitation and wind stress. The GM, which uses the same atmospheric forci...