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Three-Dimensional Structure of Optimal Nonlinear Excitation for Decadal Variability of the Thermohaline Circulation |
ZU Zi-Qing1,2, MU Mu3,1, Henk A. DIJKSTRA4 |
1State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Wave, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
4Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Utrecht University, 3584 CC Utrecht, the Netherlands |
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Abstract The decadal variability of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) is investigated within a three-dimensional ocean circulation model using the conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation method. The results show that the optimal initial perturbations of temperature and salinity exciting the strongest decadal THC variations have similar structures: the perturbations are mainly in the northwestern basin at a depth ranging from ?1500 to ?3000 m. These temperature and salinity perturbations act as the optimal precursors for future modifications of the THC, highlighting the importance of observations in the northwestern basin to monitor the variations of temperature and salinity at depth. The decadal THC variation in the nonlinear model initialized by the optimal salinity perturbations is much stronger than that caused by the optimal temperature perturbations, indicating that salinity variations might play a relatively important role in exciting the decadal THC variability. Moreover, the decadal THC variations in the tangent linear and nonlinear models show remarkably different characteristics, suggesting the importance of nonlinear processes in the decadal variability of the THC.
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Received: 28 February 2013
Revised: 27 March 2013
Accepted: 08 April 2013
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Corresponding Author:
ZU Zi-Qing
E-mail: zuziqing@126.com
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