Multidecadal North Atlantic sea surface temperature and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability in CMIP5 historical simulations

Abstract

Received 22 May 2013; revised 4 September 2013; accepted 8 September 2013; published 23 October 2013. [1] In this paper, simulated variability of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and their relationship has been investigated. For the first time, climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) provided to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR5) in historical simulations have been used for this purpose. The models show the most energetic variability on the multidecadal timescale band both with respect to the AMO and AMOC, but with a large model spread in both amplitude and frequency. The relationship between the AMO and AMOC in most of the models resembles the delayed advective oscillation proposed for the AMOC on multidecadal timescales. A speed up (slow down) of the AMOC is in favor of generating a warm (cold) phase of the AMO by the anomalous northward (southward) heat transport in the upper ocean, which reversely leads to a weakening (strengthening) of the AMOC through changes in the meridional density gradient after a delayed time of ocean adjustment. This suggests that on multidecadal timescales the AMO and AMOC are related and interact with each other.