Thermohaline Circulation Stability: A Box Model Study. Part II: Coupled Atmosphere–Ocean Model

Abstract

Abstract A thorough analysis of the stability of a coupled version of an interhemispheric three-box model of thermohaline circulation (THC) is presented. This study follows a similarly structured analysis of an uncoupled version of the same model presented in Part I of this paper. The model consists of a northern high-latitude box, a tropical box, and a southern high-latitude box, which can be thought of as corresponding to the northern, tropical, and southern Atlantic Ocean, respectively. This paper examines how the strength of THC changes when the system undergoes forcings representing global warming conditions. Since a coupled model is used, a direct representation of the radiative forcing is possible because the main atmospheric physical processes responsible for freshwater and heat fluxes are formulated separately. 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. Although only weakly asymmetric or symmetric radiative forcings are representative of physically reasonable conditions, general asymmetric forcings are considered in order to get a more complete picture of the mathematical properties of the system. The choice of suitably defined metrics makes it possible to determine the boundary dividing the set of radiative forcing scenarios that lead the system to equilibria characterized by a THC pattern similar to the present one, from those that drive the system to equilibria where the THC is reversed. This paper also considers different choices for the atmospheric transport parameterizations and for the ratio between the high-latitude and tropical radiative forcing. It is generally found that fast forcings are more effective than slow forcings in disrupting the present THC pattern, forcings that are stronger in the northern box are also more effective in destabilizing the system, and very slow forcings do not destabilize the system whatever their asymmetry, unless the radiative forcings are very asymmetric and the atmospheric transport is a relatively weak function of the meridional temperature gradient. In this latter case some relevant hysteresis graphs of the system are presented. The changes in the strength of the THC are primarily forced by changes in the latent heat transport in the hemisphere because of its sensitivity to temperature, which arises from the Clausius–Clapeyron relation.