RAPID - Round 1 - The Role of Air-Sea Forcing in Causing Rapid Changes in the North Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation Project

Introduction

The main aims of this proposal are to determine the role that surface forcing variability plays in causing rapid changes in the ocean circulation and to examine the effect of such changes on climate. We will address these issues through a combined analysis of coupled model output and observational datasets. The focus of the analysis will be the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) although the results will be interpreted in the broader context of the global climate system. Variations in the air-sea fluxes of surface heat and freshwater have the potential to cause rapid changes in the ocean circulation eg through their influence on deep convection. However, the relationship between surface forcing variability and rapid changes in the ocean remains to be properly determined; our goal is to significantly improve understanding of this area.

Project Duration: 16 Feb 2004 - 15 Oct 2007

This project is funded by NERC - Grant Ref. NER/T/S/2002/00427 - through the RAPID Climate Change NERC directed mode programme.

Availability of data

The project will focus on the determination of which patterns of surface and near-surface variables are related to (or are susceptible to cause) changes in the THC. The variables analysed will be the sea-air heat exchanges (long wave, short wave, and sensible heat and latent heat fluxes) and the fresh water exchanges (evaporation, precipitation). Patterns will be tracked in both observational data sets and model runs. Various experiments will be run with the coupled models (representing 10 000 years in total) in order to isolate modes of variation. The ocean component will then be forced by these modes (10 to 20 runs). Output will be kept at a monthly resolution.

Atmospheric and oceanographic data will be required for model validation. Resulting output will include frozen versions of models used plus model input. Data that will be produced include:

1000-year control run of FORTE at a monthly time resolution (160 Gbytes). Can (should) be archived quickly.
Regarding other model output, some investigation on the best archival approach is needed (archival of code and code input versus archival of output at reduced resolution, e.g. yearly rather than monthly, with more detail over time periods of special interest). The approximate time scale for archival is 18 months after project start.
Analysis of existing observed surface fluxes from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (I-COADS)

Access to data and information

Data and software supplied from this project to the BADC will be stored in the BADC RAPID archive.

Access to the archive is currently restricted to participants to this particular project. If you are a programme participant and would like to access this RAPID project data, then please apply for access^* to the RAPID data.

You will be requested to abide by the RAPID Climate Change Data Policy.
Data management, availability and use are ruled by the RAPID Climate Change Programme Data Management Plan (PDF document).
Access to Hadley Centre model data held at the BADC is subject to the signature of the NERC-Met Office agreement.

^* Note that to apply for access to this dataset, you should first register as a BADC user (anyone is allowed to register). If you are already a registered BADC user, skip this step. If you have forgotten your BADC user ID and/or password, please contact the BADC helpdesk at badc@rl.ac.uk. To register as a new BADC user, please follow the instructions online.

Citation

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Who to contact

This RAPID project is led by Dr Simon Josey of National Ocenaography Centre, with co-investigators also at the National Oceanography Centre.

General queries about these pages or browsing the data should be directed to the BADC Support Line.

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