The Southern Hemisphere Westerlies in a Warming World: Propping Open the Door to the Deep Ocean

A coupled climate model with poleward-intensified westerly winds simulates significantly higher storage of heat and anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the Southern Ocean in the future when compared with the storage in a model with initially weaker, equatorward-biased westerlies. This difference results...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of climate 2006-12, Vol.19 (24), p.6382-6390
Main Authors: Russell, Joellen L., Dixon, Keith W., Gnanadesikan, Anand, Stouffer, Ronald J., Toggweiler, J. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Atmospherics
Carbon dioxide
Climate change
Climate models
Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Fluid dynamics
Global warming
Greenhouse gases
Heat storage
Marine
Meteorology
Oceanic climates
Oceans
Physics of the oceans
Sea level
Sea water
Sea-air exchange processes
Simulation
Simulations
Surface water
Ventilation
Wind
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Summary:A coupled climate model with poleward-intensified westerly winds simulates significantly higher storage of heat and anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the Southern Ocean in the future when compared with the storage in a model with initially weaker, equatorward-biased westerlies. This difference results from the larger outcrop area of the dense waters around Antarctica and more vigorous divergence, which remains robust even as rising atmospheric greenhouse gas levels induce warming that reduces the density of surface waters in the Southern Ocean. These results imply that the impact of warming on the stratification of the global ocean may be reduced by the poleward intensification of the westerlies, allowing the ocean to remove additional heat and anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
ISSN:0894-8755
1520-0442
DOI:10.1175/jcli3984.1