On the meridional heat transport and its partition between the atmosphere and oceans

In this thesis I study the meridional heat transport of the climate system and its partition between the atmosphere and oceans using models and data. I focus on three primary questions: (1) What is the total heat transport and its partition between the two fluids? (2) What sets the magnitude of the total heat transport and to what extent is it sensitive to the details of atmospheric and oceanic circulation? (3) How robust is the partition of heat transport between the two fluids and how sensitive is it to bathymetric constraints on ocean circulation? For these studies I employ a series of aqua-planet calculations using a coupled atmosphere-ocean-ice model in which idealized ocean basins impose various geometrical constraints on ocean circulation. A wide range of ocean heat transports and heat transport partitions are found, but with more modest variations in the total heat transport. Differences in the total heat transport are associated with the presence or absence of polar ice which is found to be sensitive to the ability of the ocean to carry heat to high latitudes. These model results, as well as data, are analyzed in the context of earlier work suggesting that the total meridional heat transport should be insensitive to the details of the atmospheric and oceanic circulation. The heat transport partitions in these aqua-planet calculations are also analyzed. The calculations all feature the same gross partition as the present climate with the ocean dominating near the equator and the atmosphere dominating at middle and high latitudes. While this suggests that this overall partition may be a robust feature of the climate system, there are important differences associated with the presence or absence of a meridional barrier to zonal flow in the ocean.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Enderton, Daniel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Marshall.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/47842

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/47842