We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
The Influence of Warming Patterns on Passive Ocean Heat Uptake.
- Authors
Newsom, Emily; Zanna, Laure; Khatiwala, Samar; Gregory, Jonathan M.
- Abstract
The climate's response to forcing depends on how efficiently heat is absorbed by the ocean. Much, if not most, of this ocean heat uptake results from the passive transport of warm surface waters into the ocean's interior. Here we examine how geographic patterns of surface warming influence the efficiency of this passive heat uptake process. We show that the average pattern of surface warming in CMIP5 damps passive ocean heat uptake efficiency by nearly 25%, as compared to homogeneous surface warming. This "pattern effect" occurs because strong ventilation and weak surface warming are robustly colocated, particularly in the Southern Ocean. However, variations in warming patterns across CMIP5 do not drive significant ensemble spread in passive ocean heat uptake efficiency. This spread is likely linked to intermodel differences in ocean circulation, which our idealized results suggest may be dominated by differences in Southern Ocean and subtropical ventilation processes. Key Points: CMIP5‐average sea surface temperature patterns damp passive ocean heat uptake efficiency by 24%Variations in surface warming patterns between models do not explain the spread in ocean heat uptake efficiencyThe spread in ocean heat uptake efficiency likely stems from differences in ocean circulation across CMIP5
- Subjects
OCEAN temperature; OCEAN; OCEAN circulation; HEAT; MINE ventilation; BIOLOGICAL transport; GREEN'S functions
- Publication
Geophysical Research Letters, 2020, Vol 47, Issue 18, p1
- ISSN
0094-8276
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2020GL088429