Mechanism of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge overflow variation under different atmospheric CO2 scenarios

Baroclinic transport and the barotropic effect are two different viewpoints for understanding the mechanism of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge overflow. The mechanism of this overflow, being an important deep branch of thermohaline circulation, deserves research discussion, especially against the background of global warming. Using the newly developed ECHAM5/MPI-OM, of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, which is an advanced atmospheresea iceocean coupled climate model, the mechanism of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge overflow variation under different atmospheric CO2 scenarios is studied. First, a control experiment is forced by a fixed CO2 concentration of 280 ppmv, which is the pre-industrial level before 1860. Three sensitive experiments are carried out under different scenarios of increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which are listed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report (B1, A1B and A2). In the control run, more water with higher salinity intruding into the Greenland-Icelandic-Norwegian Seas results in greater barotropic transport and greater overflow because of the baroclinic effect. Therefore, the barotropic effect and baroclinic effect on the overflow are unified. Under the atmospheric CO2 scenarios, the strength of overflow across the Faro-Bank Channel is controlled by the baroclinic effect and the increase in Denmark Strait overflow is attributed to the barotropic effect.     

ENSO frequency change in coupled climate models as response to the increasing CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> concentration

The response of ENSO frequency to the increasing CO2 concentration and associated mechanism are examined with outputs of four coupled climate models (GFDL/CM2.0,CNRM/CM3,IPSL/CM4 and INM/CM3.0) submitted to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4).Results reveal a significant change of ENSO frequency as response to the increasing CO2 concentration.However,such a change exhibits an evident model dependence.The ENSO frequency tends to increase in GFDL/CM2.0 and CNRM/CM3 models and decreases in IPSL/CM4 an...