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SUMMARY:The ocean’s transient conveyor belt - Shantong Sun\, Environment
 al Science and Engineering\, Caltech
DTSTART:20201019T120000Z
DTEND:20201019T130000Z
UID:TALK152269@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof. Jerome Neufeld
DESCRIPTION:Climate models consistently project a robust weakening in the 
 Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the Indonesian Thro
 ughflow (ITF) during the 21st century in response to greenhouse gas forcin
 g. Here we elucidate the transient components of the global ocean overturn
 ing circulation and propose a transient conveyor belt\, in which the AMOC 
 is dynamically linked to the ITF on centennial timescales. Using a hierarc
 hy of ocean and climate models\, we show that there is a transient overtur
 ning compensation between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific basins. In a warmi
 ng climate\, the AMOC weakens\, but the Indo-Pacific develops an anomalous
  overturning circulation that opposes the Atlantic changes.  The Indo-Paci
 fic circulation is characterized by a northward transport anomaly close to
  surface.  When considering the Indian and Pacific basins separately\, the
  northward surface transport anomaly is largely confined to the Indian Oce
 an due to a basin-scale vorticity balance that constrains the surface tran
 sport in the Pacific. This surface transport response increases the sea su
 rface height in the Indian Ocean and leads to a weakened ITF. We illustrat
 e these dynamics using a 1.5-layer reduced gravity model and show that thi
 s idealized model agrees well with the response in multiple comprehensive 
 general circulation models. Our results highlight the importance of transi
 ent inter-basin exchanges\, especially on decadal to centennial time scale
 s\, in regulating the global ocean circulation in a changing climate.
LOCATION:zoom webinar - email jn271@cam.ac.uk for link
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