Ice Sheet-Thermohaline Circulation Interactions in a Climate Model of Intermediate Complexity |
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| Authors: | Zhaomin Wang Lawrence A Mysak |
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| Institution: | (1) Centre for Climate and Global Change Research and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6 |
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| Abstract: | A vertically integrated dynamic ice sheet model is coupled to the atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-land surface climate model recently
developed by Wang and Mysak (2000). The background lateral (east-west) ice sheet discharge rate used by Gallee et al. (1992) is reduced and the planetary emissivity is increased (to parameterize the cooling effect of a decrease of the atmospheric
CO2 concentration), in order to build up substantial ice sheets during a glacial period and hence set the stage for ice sheet-thermohaline
circulation (THC) interactions. The following iceberg calving scheme is then introduced: when the maximum model height of
the North American ice sheet reaches a critical value (2400 m), a prescribed lateral discharged rate is imposed on top of
the background discharge rate for a finite time. Per a small prescribed discharge rate, repeated small iceberg calving events
occur, which lead to millennial-scale climate cycles with small amplitudes. These are a crude representation of Dansgaard-Oeschger
oscillations. Over one such cycle, the zonally averaged January surface air temperature (SAT) drops about 1.5°C at 72.5°N.
However, a large prescribed lateral discharge rate leads to the shut down of the THC. In this case, the January SAT drops
about 5°C at 72.5°N, the sea ice extent advances equatorward from 57.5° to 47.5°N and the net ice accumulation rate at the
grid of maximum ice sheet height is reduced from 0.24 to 0.15 m/y. Since data strongly suggest that a collapsed THC was not
a steady state during the last glacial, we restore the THC by increasing the vertical diffusivity in the North Atlantic Ocean
for a finite time. The resulting climate cycles associated with conveyor-on and conveyor-off phases have much larger amplitudes;
furthermore, the strong iceberg calving events lead to a larger loss of ice sheet mass and hence the period of the oscillations
is longer (several thousand years).
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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| Keywords: | Ice sheet thermohaline circulation interaction climate model intermediate complexity |
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