Climate Change: An Inter-disciplinary Approach to Problem Solving��Abrupt Climate Change

Richard B. Rood

rbrood@umich.edu

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Winter 2021

Abrupt Climate Change

• Use the past to investigate abrupt climate change
• Simulation experiments to probe plausibility
• Observations and simulation provide guidance for thinking about the future

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What is a stable climate?

LIQUID - ICE

Younger Dryas

POSSIBLE EVIDENCE OF CHANGE IN OCEAN CIRCULATION

The Thermohaline Circulation (THC) �(Global, organized circulation in the ocean)�(The “conveyer belt”, “rivers” within the ocean)

Where there is localized exchange of water between the surface and the deep ocean (convection)

Warm, surface currents.

Cold, bottom currents.

Green shading, high salt

Blue shading, low salt

A worrisome cold anomaly in North Atlantic

Abrupt Climate Change

• Dynamic variability in the ocean (ocean-ice-land-atmosphere interactions)
• Most scenarios of abrupt climate change are related to a phase change of water in some way or another.
• Does the albedo change quickly?
• Is there a change in the fresh water in the ocean?
• Is there a release of gas stored in something that is frozen?
• It is also possible to define rapid changes in ocean ecosystems, that leads to composition changes in the atmosphere. Biology – sensitive to temperature, water, salinity, ph, etc.