Abstract: The equilibrium response of the thermohaline circulation (THC) to changes of atmospheric Green House Gases is simulated using a fully coupled climate model. The strength of the North Atlantic THC decreases about 20% when the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ doubles and increases about 13% when the concentration halves. The response of the THC is divided into two different stages: the transient stage and the equilibrium stage. The transient response is mainly attributable to the changes of local surface heat flux and freshwater flux in the high latitude of North Atlantic, while the equilibrium response is also relevant to the non-local transport of heat and freshwater by THC itself, with the former acting as a positive feedback and the later as a negative feedback. The slow recovery of THC in the doubled CO₂ experiment implies the role of the positive feedback overwhelms that of negative feedback, while the equilibrium behavior of THC in the halved CO₂ experiment suggests that they cancel each other. In addition, the nonlinear relationship between density and temperature of seawater leads to the nonlinear behavior of the THC responses in doubled and halved CO₂ experiments.

Key words: thermohaline circulation, equilibrium response, transient response

摘要： 利用海?气耦合模式模拟了北大西洋热盐环流对外强迫的平衡响应。大气中CO₂浓度加倍后, 热盐环流强度将减弱约20%; 大气中CO₂浓度减半后, 热盐环流将增强约13%。研究结果表明, 热盐环流对外强迫的响应有两个阶段: 瞬变阶段和平衡阶段。瞬变响应主要取决于局地海表热通量和淡水通量的变化, 平衡响应还与非局地热量输送和淡水输送过程有关, 两个过程作用相互竞争。在CO₂加倍实验中, 与淡水输送相关联的正反馈作用更强, 导致热盐环流略有恢复; 在CO₂减半实验中, 热量输送与淡水输送作用相抵, 热盐环流没有明显的恢复。此外, 海水密度与其温度的非线性关系导致CO₂加倍和减半实验中热盐环流的响应大小是非对称的。

关键词: 热盐环流, 平衡响应, 瞬变响应