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Decadal climate variability associated with the Meridional Overturning Circulation and the North Atlantic Oscillation in CHIME
Aurélie Persechino, Robert Marsh, Bablu Sinha, Rowan Sutton
National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton (UK)
(Abstract received 05/08/2009 for session X)
ABSTRACT
POSTER presentation Session: Model/Model or model/data comparisons Using statistical analysis, this study investigates the decadal variability in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in a new coupled climate model CHIME (Coupled Hadley Isopycnic Model Experiment) developed at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. This model is as similar as possible to HadCM3 with the important exception that the ocean component has been replaced by the hybrid-coordinate model HYCOM. Because of the well-known contribution of both the AMOC and NAO to the mild climate of Atlantic European region, understanding the mechanisms leading to their strong variability is a pre-requisite for developing decadal predictions. In this study, the variability of the MOC and NAO in a 200-year (preindustrial) control run of CHIME is examined. Overall CHIME shows a more realistic AMOC pattern than HadCM3 and shows clear evidence for decadal variability of the North Atlantic Deep Water cell. The ocean heat transport anomalies simulated in CHIME also show persistence on decadal timescales especially in mid-high latitudes. The NAO shows strong interannual to decadal variability, and seems to affect the AMOC on interannual timescales and not so much on decadal timescales.
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2009 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida Jume 1 - 3, 2009