On the history of meridional overturning circulation schematic diagrams
On the history of meridional overturning circulation schematic diagrams
Date
2007-07-23
Authors
Richardson, Philip L.
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Keywords
Ocean conveyor belt
Meridional overturning circulation
Thermohaline circulation
Global ocean circulation
Schematic circulation diagrams
History of ocean circulation
Meridional overturning circulation
Thermohaline circulation
Global ocean circulation
Schematic circulation diagrams
History of ocean circulation
Abstract
Recent global warming caused by humans and the prediction of a reduced Atlantic
Ocean meridional overturning circulation in the future has increased interest in the role of
the overturning circulation in climate change. A schematic diagram of the overturning
circulation called the “Great Ocean Conveyor Belt,” published by Wallace Broecker in
1987, has become a popular image that emphasizes the inter-connected ocean circulation
and the northward flux of heat in the Atlantic. This would appear to be a good time to
review the development of the conveyor belt concept and summarize the history of
overturning circulation schematics.
In the nineteenth century it was thought that symmetric overturning circulation cells
were located on either side of the equator in the Atlantic. As new hydrographic
measurements were obtained in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century,
circulation schematics in the early twentieth century began to show the inter-hemispheric
overturning circulation in the Atlantic. In the second half of the twentieth century
schematics showed the global ocean overturning circulation including connections
between the Atlantic and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Some recent schematics of the
overturning circulation show its complexities, but as more information is included these
schematics have also become complex and not as easy to understand as the simple
Broecker 1987 version.
Description
Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Progress In Oceanography 76 (2008): 466-486, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2008.01.005.