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gfdl's home page > gfdl on-line bibliography > 1995: Natural Climate Variability on Decade-to-Century Time Scales, 440-441
North Atlantic Interdecadal variability in a coupled model
| Delworth, T. L., S. Manabe, and R. J. Stouffer, 1995: North Atlantic Interdecadal variability in a coupled model. In Natural Climate Variability on Decade-to-Century Time Scales, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 432-439; Discussion: 440-441. |
| Abstract: A fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model is shown to have irregular oscillations of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean with a time scale of approximately 40 to 50 years. The fluctuations appear to be driven by density anomalies in the sinking region of the thermohaline circulation combined with much smaller density anomalies of opposite sign in the broad, rising region. Anomalies of sea surface temperature associated with this oscillation induce surface air temperature anomalies over the northern North Atlantic, the Arctic, and northwestern Europe. The spatial pattern of sea surface temperature anomalies bears an encouraging resemblance to a pattern of observed interdecadal variability in the NorthAtlantic. |