- National Oceanography Centre, Marine Systems Modelling, Southampton, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (amber.walsh@outlook.com)
We perform modelling experiments designed to decompose the historical buoyancy and momentum flux contributions to observed AMOC variability. Using NEMO, we have forced the model with interannually varying momentum fluxes, while keeping the buoyancy fluxes fixed with a repeat year forcing (momentum experiment), and then with interannual buoyancy forcing and repeat year momentum forcing (buoyancy experiment). These are compared to a full interannually forced control.
Our analysis focuses on comparisons with the RAPID and OSNAP arrays to assess how well each of the momentum and buoyancy experiments matches AMOC variability at RAPID/OSNAP across different timescales. One key result is that decadal variability of AMOC is most dependent on buoyancy forcing, and that both momentum and buoyancy forcing are important for reproducing interannual variability.
How to cite: Walsh, A., Mecking, J., Hirschi, J., and Blaker, A.: Assessing AMOC sensitivity to buoyancy and momentum forcing, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10417, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10417, 2025.
