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Bjerknes Compensation in a Changing Climate

Presentation Date
Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 2:45pm - Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 3:00pm
Location
The Baltimore Convention Center - 326
Authors

Author

Abstract

The term 'Bjerknes Compensation' (BjC) is used to describe the hypothesis that variations in the atmospheric and oceanic heat transport balance each other given the fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and the ocean heat content remain approximately constant. This study focuses on BjC in boreal polar latitudes across the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experiments and the mechanisms driving OHT into the Sub-Polar North Atlantic (SPNA) region [47–65°N, 0–60°W] and into the Arctic. While BjC is present across simulations in the piControl (pre-industrial control) experiment, it weakens across the simulations in historical (varying greenhouse gas forcing following the recent historical pattern) and abrupt-4XCO2 (CO2 is abruptly quadrupled and then held constant for 150 years) experiments in CMIP6. We investigate how and why the compensation weakens at boreal polar latitudes becomes weaker in a changing climate and the role of ocean circulation (such as Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) and retreating sea ice in it.

Funding Program Area(s)