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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Physical: Ice mechanics and air-sea-ice exchange processes
  • Oceanography: General: Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
  • Oceanography: General: Numerical modeling
  • Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability

Abstract

Sea‐ice interaction with the thermohaline circulation

Jiayan Yang

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

J. David Neelin

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

Linkages have been suggested between observed interdecadal variability of sea‐ice and salinity in the North Atlantic. A plausible mechanism for generating such variability through the interaction of sea‐ice and the thermohaline circulation (THC) is examined in a zonally‐averaged THC model coupled to a thermodynamic ice model. A self‐sustaining interdecadal oscillation arises through the feedbacks between salinity anomalies induced by the sea‐ice melting‐freezing process and anomalous meridional heat transport associated with the THC. The oscillation time scale is not associated with any oceanic time scales but fundamentally depends on ice‐THC coupling. The period is quite robust to stochastic forcing, although the regularity is strongly affected.

Received 20 October 1992; accepted 4 December 1992; .

Citation: Yang, J., and J. D. Neelin (1993), Sea‐ice interaction with the thermohaline circulation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20(3), 217–220.

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