首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 62 毫秒
1.
We investigate the effects of realistic oceanic initial conditions on a set of decadal climate predictions performed with a state-of-the-art coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model. The decadal predictions are performed in both retrospective (hindcast) and forecast modes. Specifically, the full set of prediction experiments consists of 3-member ensembles of 30-year simulations, starting at 5-year intervals from 1960 to 2005, using historical radiative forcing conditions for the 1960–2005 period, followed by RCP4.5 scenario settings for the 2006–2035 period. The ocean initial states are provided by ocean reanalyses differing by assimilation methods and assimilated data, but obtained with the same ocean model. The use of alternative ocean reanalyses yields the required perturbation of the full three-dimensional ocean state aimed at generating the ensemble members spread. A full-value initialization technique is adopted. The predictive skill of the system appears to be driven to large extent by trends in the radiative forcing. However, after detrending, a residual skill over specific regions of the ocean emerges in the near-term. Specifically, natural fluctuations in the North Atlantic sea-surface temperature (SST) associated with large-scale multi-decadal variability modes are predictable in the 2–5 year range. This is consistent with significant predictive skill found in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation over a similar timescale. The dependency of forecast skill on ocean initialization is analysed, revealing a strong impact of details of ocean data assimilation products on the system predictive skill. This points to the need of reducing the large uncertainties that currently affect global ocean reanalyses, in the perspective of providing reliable near-term climate predictions.  相似文献   

2.
We study the impact of three ocean state estimates (GECCO, SODA, [ECMWF]-ORA-S3) on decadal predictability in one particular forecast system, the Earth system model from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. The forecast procedure follows two steps. First, anomalies of temperature and salinity of the observational estimates are assimilated into our coupled model. Second, the assimilation runs are then used to initialize 10-year-long hindcasts/forecasts starting from each year between 1960 and 2001. The impact of the individual ocean state estimates is evaluated both by the extent to which climate variations from the ocean state estimates are adopted by the forecast system (‘fidelity’) and by the prediction skill of the corresponding hindcast experiments. The evaluation focuses on North Atlantic (NA) sea surface temperature (SST), upper-level (0–700?m) NA ocean heat content (OHC) and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC). Regarding fidelity, correlations between observations and the assimilation runs are generally high for NA SST and NA OHC, except for NA OHC in the GECCO assimilation. MOC variations experience strong modifications when GECCO and SODA are assimilated, much less so when assimilating ORA-S3. Regarding prediction skill, when initializing with ORA-S3 and SODA, correlations with observations are high for NA OHC and moderate for NA SST. Correlations in case of GECCO, on the other hand, are high for NA SST and moderate for NA OHC. Relatively high MOC correlations between hindcasts and respective assimilation run appear in the first five years in GECCO in the tropics and subtropics and in ORA-S3 north of 50N. Correlations are largely reduced when the MOC signals are detrended. The trends in the assimilation runs are to some extent artifacts of the assimilation procedure. Hence, our potential predictabilities of the MOC are optimistic estimates of the upper limits of predictability. However, the ORA-S3 reanalysis gives the best results for our forecast system as measured by both overall fidelity of the assimilation procedure and predictions of upper-level OHC in the North Atlantic.  相似文献   

3.
Seawater property changes in the North Atlantic Ocean affect the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), which transports warm water northward from the upper ocean and contributes to the temperate climate of Europe, as well as influences climate globally. Previous observational studies have focused on salinity and freshwater variability in the sinking region of the North Atlantic, since it is believed that a freshening North Atlantic basin can slow down or halt the flow of the AMOC. Here we use available data to show the importance of how density patterns over the upper ocean of the North Atlantic affect the strength of the AMOC. For the long-term trend, the upper ocean of the subpolar North Atlantic is becoming cooler and fresher, whereas the subtropical North Atlantic is becoming warmer and saltier. On a multidecadal timescale, the upper ocean of the North Atlantic has generally been warmer and saltier since 1995. The heat and salt content in the subpolar North Atlantic lags that in the subtropical North Atlantic by about 8–9 years, suggesting a lower latitude origin for the temperature and salinity anomalies. Because of the opposite effects of temperature and salinity on density for both long-term trend and multidecadal timescales, these variations do not result in a density reduction in the subpolar North Atlantic for slowing down the AMOC. Indeed, the variations in the meridional density gradient between the subpolar and subtropical North Atlantic Ocean suggest that the AMOC has become stronger over the past five decades. These observed results are supported by and consistent with some oceanic reanalysis products.  相似文献   

4.
Assessing the skill of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in decadal hindcasts (i.e. retrospective predictions) is hampered by a lack of observations for verification. Models are therefore needed to reconstruct the historical AMOC variability. Here we show that ten recent oceanic syntheses provide a common signal of AMOC variability at 45°N, with an increase from the 1960s to the mid-1990s and a decrease thereafter although they disagree on the exact magnitude. This signal correlates with observed key processes such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, sub-polar gyre strength, Atlantic sea surface temperature dipole, and Labrador Sea convection that are thought to be related to the AMOC. Furthermore, we find potential predictability of the mid-latitude AMOC for the first 3–6 year means when we validate decadal hindcasts for the past 50 years against the multi-model signal. However, this predictability is not found in models driven only by external radiative changes, demonstrating the need for initialization of decadal climate predictions.  相似文献   

5.
The sensitivity of the predictive skill of a decadal climate prediction system is investigated with respect to details of the initialization procedure. For this purpose, the coupled ocean–atmosphere UCLA/MITgcm climate model is initialized using the following three different initialization approaches: full state initialization (FSI), anomaly initialization (AI) and FSI employing heat flux and freshwater flux corrections (FC). The ocean initial conditions are provided by the German contribution to Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean state estimate (GECCO project), from which ensembles of decadal hindcasts are initialized every 5 years from 1961 to 2001. The predictive skill for sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH) and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is assessed against the GECCO synthesis. In regions with a deep mixed layer the predictive skill for SST anomalies remains significant for up to a decade in the FC experiment. By contrast, FSI shows less persistent skill in the North Atlantic and AI does not show high skill in the extratropical Southern Hemisphere, but appears to be more skillful in the tropics. In the extratropics, the improved skill is related to the ability of the FC initialization method to better represent the mixed layer depth, and the highest skill occurs during wintertime. The correlation skill for the spatially averaged North Atlantic SSH hindcasts remains significant up to a decade only for FC. The North Atlantic MOC initialized hindcasts show high correlation values in the first pentad while correlation remains significant in the following pentad too for FSI and FC. Overall, for the current setup, the FC approach appears to lead to the best results, followed by the FSI and AI procedures.  相似文献   

6.
Decadal prediction skill in a multi-model ensemble   总被引：4，自引：3，他引：1  
Decadal climate predictions may have skill due to predictable components in boundary conditions (mainly greenhouse gas concentrations but also tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol distributions) and initial conditions (mainly the ocean state). We investigate the skill of temperature and precipitation hindcasts from a multi-model ensemble of four climate forecast systems based on coupled ocean-atmosphere models. Regional variations in skill with and without trend are compared with similarly analysed uninitialised experiments to separate the trend due to monotonically increasing forcings from fluctuations around the trend due to the ocean initial state and aerosol forcings. In temperature most of the skill in both multi-model ensembles comes from the externally forced trends. The rise of the global mean temperature is represented well in the initialised hindcasts, but variations around the trend show little skill beyond the first year due to the absence of volcanic aerosols in the hindcasts and the unpredictability of ENSO. The models have non-trivial skill in hindcasts of North Atlantic sea surface temperature beyond the trend. This skill is highest in the northern North Atlantic in initialised experiments and in the subtropical North Atlantic in uninitialised simulations. A similar result is found in the Pacific Ocean, although the signal is less clear. The uninitialised simulations have good skill beyond the trend in the western North Pacific. The initialised experiments show some skill in the decadal ENSO region in the eastern Pacific, in agreement with previous studies. However, the results in this study are not statistically significant (p?≈?0.1) by themselves. The initialised models also show some skill in forecasting 4-year mean Sahel rainfall at lead times of 1 and 5?years, in agreement with the observed teleconnection from the Atlantic Ocean. Again, the skill is not statistically significant (p?≈?0.2). Furthermore, uninitialised simulations that include volcanic aerosols have similar skill. It is therefore still an open question whether initialisation improves predictions of Sahel rainfall. We conclude that the main source of skill in forecasting temperature is the trend forced by rising greenhouse gas concentrations. The ocean initial state contributes to skill in some regions, but variations in boundary forcings such as aerosols are as important in decadal forecasting.  相似文献   

7.
Decadal prediction is one focus of the upcoming 5th IPCC Assessment report. To be able to interpret the results and to further improve the decadal predictions it is important to investigate the potential predictability in the participating climate models. This study analyzes the upper limit of climate predictability on decadal time scales and its dependency on sea ice albedo parameterization by performing two perfect ensemble experiments with the global coupled climate model EC-Earth. In the first experiment, the standard albedo formulation of EC-Earth is used, in the second experiment sea ice albedo is reduced. The potential prognostic predictability is analyzed for a set of oceanic and atmospheric parameters. The decadal predictability of the atmospheric circulation is small. The highest potential predictability was found in air temperature at 2?m height over the northern North Atlantic and the southern South Atlantic. Over land, only a few areas are significantly predictable. The predictability for continental size averages of air temperature is relatively good in all northern hemisphere regions. Sea ice thickness is highly predictable along the ice edges in the North Atlantic Arctic Sector. The meridional overturning circulation is highly predictable in both experiments and governs most of the decadal climate predictability in the northern hemisphere. The experiments using reduced sea ice albedo show some important differences like a generally higher predictability of atmospheric variables in the Arctic or higher predictability of air temperature in Europe. Furthermore, decadal variations are substantially smaller in the simulations with reduced ice albedo, which can be explained by reduced sea ice thickness in these simulations.  相似文献   

8.
《大气与海洋》2013,51(2):81-92
Abstract

Evidence based on numerical simulations is presented for a strong correlation between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the North Atlantic overturning circulation. Using an ensemble of numerical experiments with a coupled ocean‐atmosphere model including both natural and anthropogenic forcings, it is shown that the weakening of the thermohaline circulation (THC) could be delayed in response to a sustained upward trend in the NAO, which was observed over the last three decades of the twentieth century, 1970–99. Overall warming and enhanced horizontal transports of heat from the tropics to the subpolar North Atlantic overwhelm the NAO‐induced cooling of the upper ocean layers due to enhanced fluxes of latent and sensible heat, so that the net effect of warmed surface ocean temperatures acts to increase the vertical stability of the ocean column. However, the strong westerly winds cause increased evaporation from the ocean surface, which leads to a reduced fresh water flux over the western part of the North Atlantic. Horizontal poleward transport of salinity anomalies from the tropical Atlantic is the major contributor to the increasing salinities in the sinking regions of the North Atlantic. The effect of positive salinity anomalies on surface ocean density overrides the opposing effect of enhanced warming of the ocean surface, which causes an increase in surface density in the Labrador Sea and in the ocean area south of Greenland. The increased density of the upper ocean layer leads to deeper convection in the Labrador Sea and in the western North Atlantic. With a lag of four years, the meridional overturning circulation of the North Atlantic shows strengthening as it adjusts to positive density anomalies and enhanced vertical mixing. During the positive NAO trend, the salinity‐driven density instability in the upper ocean, due to both increased northward ocean transports of salinity and decreased atmospheric freshwater fluxes, results in a strengthening overturning circulation in the North Atlantic when the surface atmospheric temperature increases by 0.3°C and the ocean surface temperature warms by 0.5° to 1°C.  相似文献   

9.
BCC_CSM1.1对10年尺度全球及区域温度的预测研究   总被引：6，自引：3，他引：3  
高峰  辛晓歌  吴统文 《大气科学》2012,36(6):1165-1179
近期10～30年时间尺度的年代际预测是第五次耦合模式国际比较计划(CMIP5)重要内容之一。按照CMIP5试验要求, 国家气候中心利用气候系统模式BCC_CSM1.1完成并提交了年代际试验结果。本文评估了该模式年代际试验对10年尺度全球及区域地表温度的预测能力, 并通过与20世纪历史气候模拟试验的对比分析, 研究模式模拟对海洋初始观测状态的依赖程度。分析结果表明:(1)在有、无海洋初始化条件下, 模式均能模拟出1960～2005年间全球10年平均实测地表温度的变暖趋势, 但在有海洋初始化条件下, 可以明显减小BCC_CSM1.1模式模拟的全球升温趋势, 使得年代际试验比历史试验的结果更接近观测值。这一特点在观测资料相对丰富的南北纬50°以内地区更为显著。(2)在年代际试验预测前期, 通过Nudging方法, 利用SODA再分析海洋温度资料对模式进行初始化, 经过前期8～12月的协调后, 模式预测的第1年南北纬50°范围海洋、陆面的平均地表气温接近于观测值(CRUTEM3, HadSST2)。由于模式初值SODA再分析SST资料与HadSST2观测值存在明显的全球大洋系统暖偏差以及模式本身系统偏差的影响, 年代际试验模拟的地表气温在2～7年之内, 从观测SST状态逐渐恢复到模式系统本身状态。在同组Decadal试验中, 陆面和海洋恢复调整的时间长度几乎一致。(3) 从10年平均气候异常在区域尺度上的预报技巧来看, 有、无海洋初始同化对预测结果影响不大, 高预测技巧区主要分布在南半球印度洋中高纬度、热带西太平洋以及热带大西洋区域。(4)SST变化与下垫面热通量密切相关, 在热带和副热带海洋区域, 长波辐射和感热通量是影响10年时间尺度SST变化较大的物理量, 在中高纬度海洋, 洋面温度变化主要受潜热通量的影响相对较大。  相似文献   

10.
Any initial value forecast of climate will be subject to errors originating from poorly known initial conditions, model imperfections, and by "chaos" in the sense that, even if the initial conditions were perfectly known, infinitesimal errors can amplify and spoil the forecast at some lead time. Here the latter source of error is examined using a "perfect model" approach whereby small perturbations are made to a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model and the spread of nearby model trajectories, on time and space scales appropriate to seasonal-decadal climate variability, is measured to assess the lead time at which the error saturates. The study therefore represents an estimate of the upper limit of the predictability of climate (appropriate to the initial value problem) given a perfect model and near perfect knowledge of the initial conditions. It is found that, on average, surface air temperature anomalies are potentially predictable on seasonal to interannual time scales in the tropical regions and are potentially predictable on decadal time scales over the ocean in the North Atlantic. For mid-latitude surface air temperature anomalies over land, model trajectories rapidly diverge and there is little sign of any potential predictability on time scales greater than a season or so. For mean sea level pressure anomalies, there is potential predictability on seasonal time scales in the tropics, and for some global scale annual-decadal anomalies, although not those associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. For precipitation, the only potential for predictability is for seasonal time anomalies associated with the El-Niño Southern Oscillation. For the majority of the highly populated regions of the world, climate predictability on interannual to decadal time scales based in the initial value approach is likely to be severely limited by chaotic error growth. It is found however that there can be cases in which the potential predictability can be higher than average indicating that there is perhaps some utility in making initial value forecasts of climate in those regions which show low predictability on average.  相似文献   

11.
In this study we investigate the interannual variability of the heat content of the upper North Atlantic and the main factors, which influence the observed variability: the ocean-atmosphere heat exchange and the ocean heat transport. The data from the combined in situ and satellite dataset ARMOR-3D, and from the ocean reanalyzes ORAS5 and SODA3 (two versions) show a similar decadal interannual variability of the heat content, as well as of oceanic heat transports the study regions, though the mean values may differ. The observed variations are linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI). The current velocity of the North Atlantic, East Greenland and Labrador currents of the Subpolar Gyre increases with the NAOI, but the velocity of the Irminger and West Greenland currents decreases. This forms a seesaw of heat advection by the North Atlantic Current between the Subpolar Gyre and Nordic Seas. In the Subpolar gyre during the periods of high NAOI, this negative anomaly of the oceanic heat convergence adds to the intensified sea-surface heat release to the atmosphere, together effectively reducing the upper ocean heat content. The upper ocean heat content of the Norwegian Sea shows practically no link to the NAOI, in spite of a somewhat larger oceanic heat flux across its southern boundary linked to high NAOI.  相似文献   

12.
Observed hiatus or accelerated warming phenomena are compared with numerical simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 （CMIP5） archives,and the associated physical mechanisms are explored based on the CMIP5 models.Decadal trends in total ocean heat content （OHC） are strongly constrained by net top-of-atmosphere （TOA） radiation.During hiatus decades,most CMIP5 models exhibit a significant decrease in the SST and upper OHC and a significant increase of heat penetrating into the subsurface or deep ocean,opposite to the accelerated warming decades.The shallow meridional overturning of the Pacific subtropical cell experiences a significant strengthening （slowdown） for the hiatus （accelerated warming） decades associated with the strengthened （weakened） trade winds over the tropical Pacific.Both surface heating and ocean dynamics contribute to the decadal changes in SST over the Indian Ocean,and the Indonesian Throughflow has a close relationship with the changes of subsurface temperature in the Indian Ocean.The Atlantic Meridional Overturing Circulation （Antarctic Bottom Water） tends to weaken （strengthen） during hiatus decades,opposite to the accelerated warming decades.In short,the results highlight the important roles of air-sea interactions and ocean circulations for modulation of surface and subsurface temperature.  相似文献   

13.
In the 1960s North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SST) cooled rapidly. The magnitude of the cooling was largest in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG), and was coincident with a rapid freshening of the SPG. Here we analyze hindcasts of the 1960s North Atlantic cooling made with the UK Met Office’s decadal prediction system (DePreSys), which is initialised using observations. It is shown that DePreSys captures—with a lead time of several years—the observed cooling and freshening of the North Atlantic SPG. DePreSys also captures changes in SST over the wider North Atlantic and surface climate impacts over the wider region, such as changes in atmospheric circulation in winter and sea ice extent. We show that initialisation of an anomalously weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and hence weak northward heat transport, is crucial for DePreSys to predict the magnitude of the observed cooling. Such an anomalously weak AMOC is not captured when ocean observations are not assimilated (i.e. it is not a forced response in this model). The freshening of the SPG is also dominated by ocean salt transport changes in DePreSys; in particular, the simulation of advective freshwater anomalies analogous to the Great Salinity Anomaly were key. Therefore, DePreSys suggests that ocean dynamics played an important role in the cooling of the North Atlantic in the 1960s, and that this event was predictable.  相似文献   

14.
针对未来1~10 a气候状态的近期气候预测(年代际预测)是当前国际气候领域的研究热点。本文综述了中国科学院大气物理研究所发展的基于耦合气候系统模式的年代际气候预测系统IAP-DecPreS相关的研究进展。IAP-DecPreS系统的核心部分是耦合模式海洋分量初始化方案,“集合最优插值-分析增量更新”(EnOI-IAU)方案,该方案将集合最优插值(EnOI)和增量分析更新(IAU)结合起来,能够同化原始的海洋次表层温度廓线观测资料,对耦合模式进行初始化。系统的年代际回报试验表明,IAP-DecPreS对太平洋年代际振荡和大西洋多年代际变率的预测技巧与耦合模式比较计划第五阶段(CMIP5)技巧较高的模式相当。IAP-DecPreS系统被广泛应用于气候预测相关研究,包括火山气溶胶对年代际预测技巧的影响,全场同化和异常场同化两种不同的初始化方法对ENSO、印度洋偶极子模态和印度洋洋盆模态等的预测技巧的影响。最后,结合国际发展态势,对未来IAP-DecPreS的发展进行了讨论。  相似文献   

15.
Climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic Ocean have wide-spread implications for Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This study assesses the relative contribution of the long-term trend and variability of North Atlantic warming using EOF analysis of deep-ocean and near-surface observations. Our analysis demonstrates that the recent warming over the North Atlantic is linked to both long-term (including anthropogenic and natural) climate change and multidecadal variability (MDV, ~50–80 years). Our results suggest a general warming trend of 0.031 ± 0.006°C/decade in the upper 2,000 m North Atlantic over the last 80 years of the twentieth century, although during this time there are periods in which short-term trends were strongly amplified by MDV. For example, MDV accounts for ~60% of North Atlantic warming since 1970. The single-sign basin-scale pattern of MDV with prolonged periods of warming (cooling) in the upper ocean layer and opposite tendency in the lower layer is evident from observations. This pattern is associated with a slowdown (enhancement) of the North Atlantic thermohaline overturning circulation during negative (positive) MDV phases. In contrast, the long-term trend exhibits warming in tropical and mid-latitude North Atlantic and a pattern of cooling in regions associated with major northward heat transports, consistent with a slowdown of the North Atlantic circulation as evident from observations and confirmed by selected modeling results. This localized cooling has been masked in recent decades by warming during the positive phase of MDV. Finally, since the North Atlantic Ocean plays a crucial role in establishing and regulating the global thermohaline circulation, the multidecadal fluctuations discussed here should be considered when assessing long-term climate change and variability, both in the North Atlantic and at global scales.  相似文献   

16.
The hypothesis that northern high-latitude atmospheric variability influences decadal variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean by modulating the wind jet blowing over the Gulf of Tehuantepec (GT) is examined using the high-resolution configuration of the MIROC 3.2 global coupled model. The model is shown to have acceptable skill in replicating the spatial pattern, strength, seasonality, and time scale of observed GT wind events. The decadal variability of the simulated GT winds in a 100-year control integration is driven by the Arctic Oscillation (AO). The regional impacts of the GT winds include strong sea surface cooling, increased salinity, and the generation of westward-propagating anticyclonic eddies, also consistent with observations. However, significant nonlocal effects also emerge in concert with the low-frequency variability of the GT winds, including anomalously low upper ocean heat content (OHC) in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is suggested that the mesoscale eddies generated by the wind stress curl signature of the GT winds, which propagate several thousand kilometers toward the central Pacific, contribute to this anomaly by strengthening the meridional overturning associated with the northern subtropical cell. A parallel mechanism for the decadal OHC variability is considered by examining the Ekman and Sverdrup transports inferred from the atmospheric circulation anomalies in the northern midlatitude Pacific directly associated with the AO.  相似文献   

17.
This work evaluates the skill of retrospective predictions of the second version of the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFSv2) for the North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) and investigates the influence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the prediction skill over this region. It is shown that the CFSv2 prediction skill with 0–8 month lead displays a “tripole”-like pattern with areas of higher skills in the high latitude and tropical North Atlantic, surrounding the area of lower skills in the mid-latitude western North Atlantic. This “tripole”-like prediction skill pattern is mainly due to the persistency of SST anomalies (SSTAs), which is related to the influence of ENSO and NAO over the North Atlantic. The influences of ENSO and NAO, and their seasonality, result in the prediction skill in the tropical North Atlantic the highest in spring and the lowest in summer. In CFSv2, the ENSO influence over the North Atlantic is overestimated but the impact of NAO over the North Atlantic is not well simulated. However, compared with CFSv1, the overall skills of CFSv2 are slightly higher over the whole North Atlantic, particularly in the high latitudes and the northwest North Atlantic. The model prediction skill beyond the persistency initially presents in the mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic and extends to the low latitudes with time. That might suggest that the model captures the associated air-sea interaction in the North Atlantic. The CFSv2 prediction is less skillful than that of SSTA persistency in the high latitudes, implying that over this region the persistency is even better than CFSv2 predictions. Also, both persistent and CFSv2 predictions have relatively low skills along the Gulf Stream.  相似文献   

18.
The atmospheric circulation response to decadal fluctuations of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the IPSL climate model is investigated using the associated sea surface temperature signature. A SST anomaly is prescribed in sensitivity experiments with the atmospheric component of the IPSL model coupled to a slab ocean. The prescribed SST anomaly in the North Atlantic is the surface signature of the MOC influence on the atmosphere detected in the coupled simulation. It follows a maximum of the MOC by a few years and resembles the model Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. It is mainly characterized by a warming of the North Atlantic south of Iceland, and a cooling of the Nordic Seas. There are substantial seasonal variations in the geopotential height response to the prescribed SST anomaly, with an East Atlantic Pattern-like response in summer and a North Atlantic oscillation-like signal in winter. In summer, the response of the atmosphere is global in scale, resembling the climatic impact detected in the coupled simulation, albeit with a weaker amplitude. The zonally asymmetric or eddy part of the response is characterized by a trough over warm SST associated with changes in the stationary waves. A diagnostic analysis with daily data emphasizes the role of transient-eddy forcing in shaping and maintaining the equilibrium response. We show that in response to an intensified MOC, the North Atlantic storm tracks are enhanced and shifted northward during summer, consistent with a strengthening of the westerlies. However the anomalous response is weak, which suggests a statistically significant but rather modest influence of the extratropical SST on the atmosphere. The winter response to the MOC-induced North Atlantic warming is an intensification of the subtropical jet and a southward shift of the Atlantic storm track activity, resulting in an equatorward shift of the polar jet. Although the SST anomaly is only prescribed in the Atlantic ocean, significant impacts are found globally, indicating that the Atlantic ocean can drive a large scale atmospheric variability at decadal timescales. The atmospheric response is highly non-linear in both seasons and is consistent with the strong interaction between transient eddies and the mean flow. This study emphasizes that decadal fluctuations of the MOC can affect the storm tracks in both seasons and lead to weak but significant dynamical changes in the atmosphere.  相似文献   

19.
The relationship between decadal variations in the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and North Atlantic/Western European windstorm activity during the extended winter season is studied. According to an ensemble of three 240-year long simulations performed with the ECHAM5-MPIOM model, periods of high decadal windstorm activity frequently occur in the years following a phase of weak MOC (i.e. when the MOC starts to recover). These periods are characterised by a distinctive pattern in the mixed layer ocean heat content (OHC). A positive anomaly is located in the region 45°N?52°N/35°W?16°W (west of France). Negative anomalies are located to the North and South. The signal can be detected both in the heat content of the oceanic mixed layer and in the sea surface temperatures. Its structure is consistent with anomalously enhanced baroclinic instability in the region with the strong negative OHC gradient (30°W?10°W/45°N?60°N), which eventually produces a higher probability of windstorms.  相似文献   

20.
The anthropogenic changes during boreal winter in the thermal and zonal flow structure over Eastern Atlantic and Western Europe (EAWE) have been investigated using an ensemble of CMIP3 and CMIP5 models. The ensemble mean change in the zonal wind at 500 hPa over this region is characterized by an eastward extension of the belt of zonal winds. Using the thermal wind relation these wind changes are found to be consistent with the changes in the tropospheric temperature profile. An enhanced warming is simulated in the subtropical upper troposphere and a relative surface cooling in the mid-latitudes. The subtropical upper tropospheric warming is related to the downward branch of the mean meridional circulation, whereas the mid-latitude lower tropospheric relative cooling is linked to the ocean processes that govern changes in its surface temperatures. Inter-model differences in the simulated change of the zonal wind over the EAWE by the CMIP3 and CMIP5 models relate well with differences in the upper tropospheric subtropical warming and the mid-latitude lower tropospheric relative cooling. The simulated change of the zonal wind over the EAWE region by the CMIP3 and CMIP5 models correlates well with changes in the meridional SST gradient. We conclude that uncertainties in the projected changes of the zonal flow over Europe are at least partly due to uncertainties in the response of the North Atlantic Ocean to increased levels of greenhouse gases.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号