Toggweiler, JTziperman, EliFeliks, YizhakBryan, KyranGriffies, StephenSamuels, B2017-10-311996Toggweiler JR, Tziperman E, Feliks Y, Bryan K, Griffies SM, Samuels B. 2016. Instability of the thermohaline circulation with respect to mixed boundary conditions: Is it really a problem for realistic models? Reply. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 26: 1106-1110.1520-04850022-3670http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34310003The comment by Rahmstorf suggests that a numerical problem in Tziperman et al. (1994, TTFB) leads to a noisy E – P field that invalidates TTFB's conclusions. The authors eliminate the noise, caused by the Fourier filtering used in the model, and show that TTFB's conclusions are still valid. Rahmstorf questions whether a critical value in the freshwater forcing separates TTFB's stable and unstable runs. By TTFB's original definition, the unstable runs in both TTFB and in Rahmstorf's comment have most definitely crossed a stability transition point upon switching to mixed boundary conditions. Rahmstorf finally suggests that the instability mechanism active in TTFB is a fast convective mechanism, not the slow advective mechanism proposed in TTFB. The authors show that the timescale of the instability is, in fact, consistent with the advective mechanism.en-USJournal Article2015-11-13Tziperman, Eli2017-10-31