The meridional temperature profile of the upper layers of planetary atmospheres is set through a balance between differential radiative heating by a nearby star, or by intrinsic heat fluxes emanating from the deep interior, and the redistribution of that heat across latitudes by turbulent flows. These flows spontaneously arise through baroclinic instability of the meridional temperature gradients maintained by the forcing. When planetary curvature is neglected, this turbulence takes the form of coherent vortices that mix the meridional temperature profiles. However, the curvature of the planet favors the emergence of Rossby waves and zonal jets that restrict the meridional wandering of the fluid columns, thereby reducing the mixing efficiency across latitudes. A similar situation arises in the ocean, where the baroclinic instability of zonal currents leads to enhanced meridional heat transport by a turbulent flow consisting of vortices and zonal jets. A recent scaling theory for the turbulent heat transport by vortices is extended to include the impact of planetary curvature, in the framework of the two-layer quasigeostrophic beta-plane model. This leads to a quantitative parameterization providing the meridional temperature profile in terms of the externally imposed heat flux in an idealized model of planetary atmospheres and oceans. In addition, it provides a quantitative prediction for the emergent criticality, i.e., the degree of instability in a canonical model of planetary atmosphere or ocean.
Analyses of both altimetric data and in-situ measurements reveal patterns of meridionally-alternating, nearly zonal, coherent jet-like structures in many of the world ocean basins. In this context, recent Ocean General Circulation Model (OGCM) simulations that resolve such zonal jet-like features show that they also propagate, largely in the meridional direction. To investigate such propagation, a feature that has received scant attention, we consider the behavior of such jets in a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model on a closed mid-latitude basin and forced by a double-gyre wind forcing. In thi…
This article deals with the investigation of the influence of topography and coastlines on the dynamics of the depth averaged Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), driven by wind and atmospheric pressure. This is achieved with the help of a global barotropic circulation model, under idealized and real atmospheric conditions. It is shown that the variability of meridional mass fluxes due to the atmospheric conditions over the ACC can induce short-period density anomalies in the Southern Ocean to the north in the vicinity of 47S, which can be transferred to low latitudes by the wave mechanism des…
A box model of the inter-hemispheric Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is developed, including a variable pycnocline depth for the tropical and subtropical regions. The circulation is forced by winds over a periodic channel in the south and by freshwater forcing at the surface. The model is aimed at investigating the ocean feedbacks related to perturbations in freshwater forcing from the atmosphere, and to changes in freshwater transport in the ocean. These feedbacks are closely connected with the stability properties of the meridional overturning circulation, in particular in respon…
The atmospheric meridional energy transport in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes is mainly accomplished by planetary and synoptic waves. A decomposition into wave components highlights the strong seasonal dependence of the transport, with both the total transport and the contributions from planetary and synoptic waves peaking in winter. In both winter and summer months, poleward transport extremes primarily result from a constructive interference between planetary and synoptic motions. The contribution of the mean meridional circulation is close to climatology. Equatorward transport extreme…
The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) in the Southern Ocean is investigated using hydrographic observations combined with satellite observations of sea-surface height. A three-dimensional (spatial and vertical) estimate of the isopycnal eddy-diffusivity in the Southern Ocean is obtained using the theory of Ferrari & Nikurashin (2010), that includes the influence of suppression of the diffusivity by the strong, time-mean flows. It is found that the eddy diffusivity is enhanced at depth, reaching a maximum at the "critical layer" near 1000m. The estimate of diffusivity is used with a simp…
We present an analysis of the model by Gnanadesikan [1999] for the pycnocline depth in the ocean. An analytic solution for the overturning strength as a function of the meridional pressure difference is derived and used to discuss their mutual scaling. We show that scaling occurs only in two unphysical regimes of the model. In the absence of the Southern Ocean (SO) processes, i.e. for a northern overturning cell, the volume transport is proportional to the square root of the pressure difference. Linear scaling is seen when the overturning is restricted entirely to the SO, i.e. when no northern…
Density and sea level changes weaken the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation through ocean bottom pressure
Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, University of Miami（迈阿密大学罗斯恩施泰尔海洋、大气和地球科学学院）；National Oceanography Centre, Southampton（南安普敦国家海洋中心）
We analyze the PCMDI/CMIP3 simulations performed by climate models (CMs) using pre-industrial and SRESA1B scenarios. Relatively large biases are present for most CMs when global energy budgets and when the atmospheric, oceanic, and land budgets are considered. Apparently, the biases do not result from transient effects, but depend on the imperfect closure of the energy cycle in the fluid components and on inconsistencies over land. Therefore, the planetary emission temperature is underestimated. This may explain the CMs' cold bias. In the pre-industrial scenario, CMs agree on the location in t…
A theoretical framework is developed for understanding the transient growth and propagation characteristics of thermodynamically coupled, meridional mode-like structures in the tropics. The model consists of a Gill-Matsuno type steady atmosphere under the longwave approximation coupled via a wind-evaporation-sea surface temperature (WES) feedback to a "slab" ocean model. When projected onto basis functions for the atmosphere the system simplifies to a non-normal set of equations that describes the evolution of individual sea surface temperature (SST) modes, with clean separation between symmet…
A global hybrid coupled model is developed, with the aim of studying the effects of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks on the stability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The model includes a global ocean general circulation model and a statistical atmosphere model. The statistical atmosphere model is based on linear regressions of data from a fully coupled climate model on sea surface temperature both locally and hemispherically averaged, being the footprint of Atlantic meridional overturning variability. It provides dynamic boundary conditions to the ocean model for heat, freshwater…
The global ocean overturning circulation, critically dependent on the global density stratification, plays a central role in regulating climate evolution. While it is well-known that the global stratification profile exhibits a strong dependence to Southern Ocean dynamics and in particular to wind and buoyancy forcing, we demonstrate here that the stratification is also acutely sensitive to the mesoscale eddy energy dissipation time-scale. Within the context of a global ocean circulation model with an energy constrained mesoscale eddy parameterization, it is shown that modest variations in the…
Impact of Data-Driven Eddy Parameterization on Climate State in an Idealized Coupled CESM Model
Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, New York University（纽约大学柯朗数学科学研究所）；Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学大气与海洋科学项目）
Meridional energy transport extremes and the general circulation of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes: dominant weather regimes and preferred zonal wavenumbers
Various climate states at high obliquity are realized for a range of stellar irradiance using a dynamical atmosphere-ocean-sea ice climate model in an Aquaplanet configuration. Three stable climate states are obtained that differ in the extent of the sea ice cover. For low values of irradiance the model simulates a Cryoplanet that has a perennial global sea ice cover. By increasing stellar irradiance, transitions occur to an Uncapped Cryoplanet with a perennial equatorial sea ice belt, and eventually to an Aquaplanet with no ice. Using an emulator model we find that the Uncapped Cryoplanet is …
Employing daily wind data from the ECMWF, we perform passive particle advection to estimate the Lagrangian velocity correlation functions (LVCF) associated with the midlatitude tropospheric flow. In particular we decompose the velocity field into time mean and transient (or eddy) components to better understand the nature of the LVCF's. A closely related quantity, the absolute dispersion (AD) is also examined. Given the anisotropy of the flow, meridional and zonal characteristics are considered separately. The zonal LVCF is seen to be non-exponential. In fact, for intermediate timescales it ca…
The connection between transport barriers and potential vorticity (PV) barriers in PV-conserving flows is investigated with a focus on zonal jets in planetary atmospheres. A perturbed PV-staircase model is used to illustrate important concepts. This flow consists of a sequence of narrow eastward and broad westward zonal jets with a staircase PV structure; the PV-steps are at the latitudes of the cores of the eastward jets. Numerically simulated solutions to the quasigeostrophic PV conservation equation in a perturbed PV-staircase flow are presented. These simulations reveal that both eastward …
Earth's atmosphere is in a state far from thermodynamic equilibrium. For example, the large scale equator-to-pole temperature gradient is maintained by tropical heating, polar cooling, and a midlatitude meridional eddy heat flux predominantly driven by baroclinically unstable weather systems. Based on basic thermodynamic principles, it can be shown that the meridional heat flux, in combination with the meridional temperature gradient, acts to maximize entropy production of the atmosphere. In fact, maximum entropy production (MEP) has been successfully used to explain the observed mean state of…
Planets with high obliquity receive more radiation in the polar regions than at low latitudes, and thus, assuming an ocean-covered surface with sufficiently high heat capacity, their meridional temperature gradient was shown to be reversed for the entire year. The objective of this work is to investigate the drastically different general circulation of such planets, with an emphasis on the tropical Hadley circulation and the mid-latitude baroclinic eddy structure. We use a 3D dry dynamic core model, accompanied by an eddy-free configuration and a generalized 2D Eady model. When the meridional …
A key issue in stratified turbulence theory concerns the nature of the link between D(APE), the dissipation rate of available potential energy APE, and W_{r,turbulent}, the turbulent rate of change of background gravitational potential energy GPE_r, which are both controlled by molecular diffusion. For Boussinesq fluids with a linear equation of state, this link is simply W_{r,turbulent}=D(APE), widely interpreted as implying that GPE_r increases at the expense of APE, in contrast with the laminar case where GPE_r increases at the expense of internal energy (IE). This idea is revisited here by…
A general circulation model of intermediate complexity with an idealized earthlike aquaplanet setup is used to study the impact of changes in the oceanic heat transport on the global atmospheric circulation. Focus is put on the Lorenz energy cycle and the atmospheric mean meridional circulation. The latter is analysed by means of the Kuo-Eliassen equation. The atmospheric heat transport compensates the imposed oceanic heat transport changes to a large extent in conjunction with significant modification of the general circulation. Up to a maximum about 3PW, an increase of the oceanic heat trans…
Of profound astrobiological interest, Enceladus appears to have a global subsurface ocean that is salty, indicating water-rock reaction at present or in the past, important for its habitability. Here, we investigate how salinity and the partition of heat production between the silicate core and the ice shell affect ocean dynamics and the associated heat transport -- a key factor that determines the equilibrium ice shell geometry. Assuming steady state conditions, we show that the meridional overturning circulation of the ocean, driven by heat and salt exchange with the ice, has opposing signs …
The climate impact of ocean gateway openings during the Eocene-Oligocene transition is still under debate. Previous model studies employed grid resolutions at which the impact of mesoscale eddies has to be parameterized. We present results of a state-of-the-art eddy-resolving global ocean model with a closed Drake Passage, and compare with results of the same model at non-eddying resolution. An analysis of the pathways of heat by decomposing the meridional heat transport into eddy, horizontal, and overturning circulation components indicates that the model behavior on the large scale is qualit…
The predictability of the atmosphere at short and long time scales, associated with the coupling to the ocean, is explored in a new version of the Modular Arbitrary-Order Ocean-Atmosphere Model (MAOOAM), based on a 2-layer quasi-geostrophic atmosphere and a 1-layer reduced-gravity quasi-geostrophic ocean. This version features a new ocean basin geometry with periodic boundary conditions in the zonal direction. The analysis presented in this paper considers a low-order version of the model with 40 dynamical variables. First the increase of surface friction (and the associated heat flux) with th…
We formulate and study a low-order nonlinear coupled ocean-atmosphere model with an emphasis on the impact of radiative and heat fluxes and of the frictional coupling between the two components. This model version extends a previous 24-variable version by adding a dynamical equation for the passive advection of temperature in the ocean, together with an energy balance model. The bifurcation analysis and the numerical integration of the model reveal the presence of low-frequency variability (LFV) concentrated on and near a long-periodic, attracting orbit. This orbit combines atmospheric and oce…
An extensive analysis of an optically-thin, dry atmosphere at different values of the thermal Rossby number Ro and of the Taylor number Ff is per- formed with a general circulation model by varying the rotation rate Ω and the surface drag τ in a wide parametric range. By using nonequilibrium thermodynamics diagnostics such as material entropy production, efficiency, meridional heat transport and kinetic energy dissipation we characterize in a new way the different circulation regimes. Baroclinic circulations feature high mechanical dissipation, meridional heat transport, material entropy pro- …
A thorough analysis of the stability of a coupled version of an inter-hemispheric 3-box model of Thermohaline Circulation (THC) is presented. This study follows a similarly structured analysis on an uncoupled version of the same model presented in Part I. We study how the strength of THC changes when the system undergoes forcings representing global warming conditions. Each perturbation to the initial equilibrium is characterized by the total radiative forcing realized, by the rate of increase, and by the North-South asymmetry. The choice of suitably defined metrics allows us to determine the …
The stability properties of intermediate-order climate models are investigated by computing their Lyapunov exponents (LEs). The two models considered are PUMA (Portable University Model of the Atmosphere), a primitive-equation simple general circulation model, and MAOOAM (Modular Arbitrary-Order Ocean-Atmosphere Model), a quasi-geostrophic coupled ocean-atmosphere model on a beta-plane. We wish to investigate the effect of the different levels of filtering on the instabilities and dynamics of the atmospheric flows. Moreover, we assess the impact of the oceanic coupling, the dissipation scheme …
In this paper we exploit two equivalent formulations of the average rate of material entropy production in a planetary system to propose an approximate splitting between contributions due to vertical and eminently horizontal processes. Our approach is based only upon 2D radiative fields at the surface and at the top of atmosphere of a general planetary body. Using 2D fields at the top of atmosphere alone, we derive lower bounds to the rate of material entropy production and to the intensity of the Lorenz energy cycle. By introducing a measure of the efficiency of the planetary system with resp…
Internal redox reactions may irreversibly alter the mantle composition and volatile inventory of terrestrial and super-Earth exoplanets and affect the prospects for atmospheric observations. The global efficacy of these mechanisms, however, hinges on the transfer of reduced iron from the molten silicate mantle to the metal core. Scaling analysis indicates that turbulent diffusion in the internal magma oceans of sub-Neptunes can kinetically entrain liquid iron droplets and quench core formation. This suggests that the chemical equilibration between core, mantle, and atmosphere may be energetica…
The earliest atmospheres of rocky planets originate from extensive volatile release during magma ocean epochs that occur during assembly of the planet. These establish the initial distribution of the major volatile elements between different chemical reservoirs that subsequently evolve via geological cycles. Current theoretical techniques are limited in exploring the anticipated range of compositional and thermal scenarios of early planetary evolution, even though these are of prime importance to aid astronomical inferences on the environmental context and geological history of extrasolar plan…
Considerations of Earth climate sensitivity based on peculiarities of planetary heat capacity using system identification method: Runaway greenhouse effect scenario is still possible
Coupled atmospHere Interior modeL Intercomparison (CHILI) Protocol Version 1.0: A CUISINES Intercomparison Project of Magma Ocean Models
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学卡佩因天文研究所）；Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Stanford University（斯坦福大学地球与行星科学系）；Department of Earth and Space Sciences / Astrobiology Program, University of Washington（华盛顿大学地球与空间科学系/天体生物学项目）；Leiden Observatory（莱顿天文台）；SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research（荷兰空间研究研究所）；School of Physics, University of Bristol（布里斯托尔大学物理学院）；Department of Earth Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学地球科学系）；Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences（哈佛保罗森工程与应用科学学院）；Department of Physics, McGill University（麦吉尔大学物理系）
