1 / 9

Understanding Thermohaline Circulation and Its Impact on Climate

Explore the complexities of Thermohaline Circulation, from defining terminology to its role in heat transport and climate regulation. Learn about the movement of water masses, vertical mixing, upwelling, and the formation of deep water in various oceans. Discover the potential impact of climate change on this vital oceanic process.

jamesehernandez
Download Presentation

Understanding Thermohaline Circulation and Its Impact on Climate

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Thermohaline Circulation Carisa Sousa

  2. Description • Defining - terminology • Meridional Overturning • Movement • “Overturning” - Pacific and Indian Oceans • Vertical Mixing vs Sinking? • Spreading via currents? • Water Masses • T-S plots, water properties

  3. Downwelling • Specific zones in the North Atlantic and Southern Oceans • Evaporative Cooling • Increase in Salinity  Increase in Density • (Nor Sea, S.O.) • Sea Ice formation • “Ice Factories” • Topography – steers flow, blocks flow • Pacific deep water formation? • Salinity

  4. North Atlantic • DSOW Denmark Strait Overflow Water; LSW, Labrador Sea Water; NEADW, Northeast Atlantic Deep Water; NADW, North Atlantic Deep Water; EGC, East Greenland Current; LC, Labrador Current; WBUC, Western Boundary Undercurrent (Hillaire-Marcel, 2001.)

  5. Upwelling • Vertical Mixing • Diffusion? • Advection? • North Pacific and Indian Oceans • Sea level higher • Southern Ocean  Ekman divergence

  6. Importance • Heat Transport • Gulf Stream Example • Climate Regulator • CO2 cycle  climate cycle

  7. Climate Change • Shutdown of THC • North Atlantic cooling • Unlikely • Glacier Melt  Freshening • Other factors: wind? • Even if weakening occurs, Warming>Cooling?

More Related