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| Will Greenland Melting Halt the Thermohaline Circulation? |
In a study of the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology in the Geophysical Research Letters scientists around Johann Jungclaus go further into the question how strong the influence of Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) melting is on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
In this study the scientists repeated recent experiments conducted for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, providing an idealized additional source of freshwater along Greenland’s coast. Climate projections for the 21st century indicate a gradual increase of the AMOC. In the model experiments the GIS melting was not considered. The assumption could be, that the weakening could be accelerated substantially by meltwater input from the Greenland Ice Sheet. For conservative and high melting estimates, the AMOC reduction is 35% and 42%, respectively, compared to a weakening of 30% for the original A1B scenario. Even for the high meltwater estimate the AMOC recovers in the 22nd century. The new model runs suggest that abrupt climate change initiated by GIS melting is not a realistic scenario for the 21st century.
Original Paper: J.H. Jungclaus, H. Haak, M. Esch, E. Roeckner and J. Marotzke: Will Greenland melting halt the thermohaline circulation?, Geophysical research Letters, Vol. 33., L17708, doi: 10.1029/2006GL026815, 2006.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Jochem Marotzke Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Tel: 040 41173 440 Dr. Johann Jungclaus Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Tel: +49 40 41173 109 |
