EGU21-3153
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3153
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Added and redistributed heat and carbon in climate model projections for the Southern Ocean

Vassil Roussenov1, Ric Williams1, and Anna Katavouta1,2
Vassil Roussenov et al.
  • 1University of Liverpool, School of Environmental Sciences, Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (v.roussenov@liv.ac.uk)
  • 2National Oceanographic Institute, Liverpool , UK

Projected changes in ocean heat and carbon storage are assessed in terms of the added and 
redistributed tracer using a transport-based framework for 6 CMIP5 Earth system models following an annual 1% rise in atmospheric 
CO2. Heat and carbon budgets for the added and redistributed tracer are used to compare the reasons for the relatively-reduced storage of heat and carbon within the Southern Ocean. Here the added tracer takes 
 account of the net tracer source and the advection of the added tracer, while the redistributed tracer takes account of the time-varying advection of the pre-industrial tracer  distribution. The added heat and carbon are nearly always positive over the Southern Ocean with the net source acting to supply tracer. However, there is a relatively-reduced local storage of heat and carbon in the Southern Ocean due to the passive northward transport of heat and carbon by the overturning, which is augmented by a passive northward carbon transport for the gyre circulation. In contrast, the redistributed heat is usually negative and the redistributed carbon is positive over the Southern Ocean due to the transport effects of a strengthening residual circulation and the opposing gradients in the pre-industrial temperature and 
carbon. Hence, climate projections for the Southern Ocean are expected to have heat anomalies of a variable sign and carbon anomalies of a consistently positive  sign, since the effects of added and redistribution heat are opposing in sign, while the effects of added and redistributed 
carbon reinforce each other.


 

How to cite: Roussenov, V., Williams, R., and Katavouta, A.: Added and redistributed heat and carbon in climate model projections for the Southern Ocean, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3153, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3153, 2021.

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