Onset time and strength of oceanic deep convection diagnosed from an ocean large-eddy simulation model
Conference
·
OSTI ID:10106543
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Sequim, WA (United States)
Deep convection has an important role in the large-scale thermohaline circulation, which in turn plays a central part in determining global climate. Manabe and Stouffer`s climate simulations have shown that the thermal and dynamic structure of the oceans have pronounced changes in model climates with increased CO{sub 2}. In their simulations, the addition of low-salinity surface water at high latitudes prevents the ventilation of the deep ocean, thus reducing or in some cases nearly extinguishing the thermohaline circulation. Siegenthaler and Sarmiento remarked that whereas the ocean is the largest of the rapidly exchanging global carbon reservoirs and a major sink for anthropogenic carbon, this uptake capacity become available only when the whole ocean is chemically equilibrated with the new atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentration. The dynamics of the oceanic uptake of CO{sub 2} is therefore strongly determined by the rate of downward transport of CO{sub 2}-laden water from surface to depth. The importance of deep convection in moderating the uptake of CO{sub 2} by the ocean and its role in the meridional circulation, which affects climate by transporting heat from the tropics to the polar regions, motivates this research. The experiments described here were designed to study the sensitivity of the onset time and strength of deep convection to changes in the heat flux, latent heat flux, and perturbations of the surface mixed-layer temperature and salinity.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 10106543
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA--24935; CONF-950153--1; ON: DE95004548
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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