Identifying a Damped Oscillatory Thermohaline Mode in a General Circulation Model Using an Adjoint Model
View/ Open
Tziperman_DampedOscillatorThermo.pdf (1.090Mb)
Access Status
Full text of the requested work is not available in DASH at this time ("restricted access"). For more information on restricted deposits, see our FAQ.Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(2001)031<2297:IADOTM>2.0.CO;2Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Sirkes, Ziv and Eli Tziperman. 2001. Identifying a damped oscillatory thermohaline mode in a general circulation model using an adjoint model. Journal of Physical Oceanography 31(8): 2297-2306.Abstract
A damped oscillatory mode of the thermohaline circulation (THC), which may play a role in interdecadalclimate variability, is identified in a global primitive equation model. This analysis is done under mixed boundary
conditions using an adjoint of the primitive equation model.
The linearized versus nonlinear stability behavior of the model is studied by comparing the adjoint analysis
to runs of the fully nonlinear model. It is shown that a steady-state solution obtained under larger amplitude
freshwater surface forcing (and hence with a weaker North Atlantic overturning) is unstable, while a steadystate
solution with stronger THC is stable. In a certain intermediate parameter regime it is found that the full
nonlinear model state may be unstable, while the linearized analysis indicates that the model state is stable. It
is proposed that this may be because either the instability mechanism at this intermediate regime is nonlinear
or, while the model is linearly stable at this regime, it allows for temporary growth of small perturbations due
to the non-normal nature of the problem.
A clear signal of variations is not found in the amplitude of the horizontal gyre circulation, possibly indicating
that the gyre effect that was found in THC oscillations in some previous studies may not be essential for the
existence of the THC oscillation. The long timescale of the oscillation in the present model also seems to indicate
that the gyre effect may not be a main active participant in the thermohaline oscillation mechanism.
Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3439964
Collections
- FAS Scholarly Articles [17845]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)