Identification

Title

Oceanic pathways of an Active Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation (PMOC)

Abstract

In contrast to the modern-day climate, North Pacific deep water formation and a Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) may have been active during past climate conditions, in particular during the Pliocene epoch (some 3-5 million years ago). Here, we use a climate model simulation with a robust PMOC cell to investigate the pathways of the North Pacific deep water from subduction to upwelling, as revealed by Lagrangian particle trajectories. We find that similar to the present-day Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), most subducted North Pacific deep water upwells in the Southern Ocean. However, roughly 15% upwells in the tropical Indo-Pacific Oceans instead-a key feature distinguishing the PMOC from the AMOC. The connection to the Indian Ocean is relatively fast, at about 250 years. The connection to the tropical Pacific is slower (similar to 800 years) as water first travels to the subtropical South Pacific then gradually upwells through the thermocline.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7g73j4f

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2021-05-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact