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Model–proxy comparison for overshoot phenomenon of Atlantic thermohaline circulation at Bølling–Allerød

  • Article
  • Oceanology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

The overshoot phenomenon of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) is a transient climate response to meltwater forcing and could induce intense climate change by increasing the magnitudes of Atlantic THC changes at the end of meltwater discharges. This phenomenon was formally presented with the successfully simulated Bølling–Allerød (BA) event in the first transient simulation of the last deglaciation with fully coupled model NCAR-CCSM3 (TraCE-21K). Currently, not all proxy records of Atlantic THC support the occurrence of the THC overshoot at BA. Commonly used THC proxy from Bermuda Rise (GGC5) does not exhibit THC overshoot at BA but other proxies such as TTR-451 at Eirik Drift do. How to interpret this regional discrepancy of proxy records is a key question for the validation of the Atlantic THC overshoot at BA. Here, we show that the vigor of deep circulation varies regionally during the Atlantic THC overshoot at BA in TraCE-21K simulation, and this regional discrepancy in the simulation is consistent with that in the marine sediment records in North Atlantic. The consistent model–proxy evidence supports the occurrence of Atlantic THC overshoot at BA.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank R. Anderson for a helpful discussion on the implication of 231Pa/230Th. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41206024, 41130105), the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy of USA. This paper is Earth System Modeling Center (ESMC) contribution number ESMC-007.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polar Climate System and Global Change Laboratory and Earth System Modeling Center (ESMC), Nanjing International Academy of Meteorological Sciences (NIAMS), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Jun Cheng

  2. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Zhengyu Liu & Feng He

  3. LaCOAS/Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Zhengyu Liu

  4. Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, 80307-3000, USA

    Bette Otto-Bliesner & Esther Brady

  5. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Jean Lynch-Stieglitz

Authors
  1. Jun Cheng
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  2. Zhengyu Liu
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  3. Feng He
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  4. Bette Otto-Bliesner
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Correspondence to Jun Cheng.

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Cheng, J., Liu, Z., He, F. et al. Model–proxy comparison for overshoot phenomenon of Atlantic thermohaline circulation at Bølling–Allerød. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 4510–4515 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0586-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0586-x

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