Rapid climatic change and the deep ocean

✍ Scribed by Robert G. Watts; Michael Morantine

• Book ID: 104636943
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 799 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0009
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00137347

✦ Synopsis

A simple transient two-dimensional (latitude-depth) upwelling-diffusion ocean model coupled with an energy balance climate model is used to determine the surface temperature response to changes in the deep water formation rate. The changes in surface temperature are large and rapid with a large magnification at high latitudes, suggesting that rapid climate changes during the Glacial-Holocene transition could have been the result of variations in the rate of deep water formation. If this is true, the mechanism is essentially transient in nature and cannot be predicted using steady state models.