On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability

The ocean, one of the five major components of the Earth’s climate system, plays a key role in climate-forming processes, affecting its change and variability. The ocean influences climate over a wide range of time–space scales. To explore the climate, its components, interactions between them and,...

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Main Author: Sergei Soldatenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-08-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/10/9/1216
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author Sergei Soldatenko
author_facet Sergei Soldatenko
author_sort Sergei Soldatenko
collection DOAJ
description The ocean, one of the five major components of the Earth’s climate system, plays a key role in climate-forming processes, affecting its change and variability. The ocean influences climate over a wide range of time–space scales. To explore the climate, its components, interactions between them and, in particular, the effect of the ocean on weather and climate, researchers commonly use extremely complex mathematical models of the climate system that describe the atmospheric and ocean general circulations. However, this class of climate models requires enormous human and computing resources to simulate the climate system itself and to analyze the output results. For simple climate models, such as energy balance and similar models, the computational cost is insignificant, which is why these models represent a test tool to mimic a complex climate system and obtaining preliminary estimates of the influence of various internal and external factors on climate, its change and variability. The global mean surface temperature (GMST) and its fluctuations in time serve as critical indicators of changes in the climate system state. We apply a simple two-box ocean model to explore the effect of mixed and deep ocean layers on climate-forming processes and especially on climate change and variability. The effect of mixed and deep ocean layers on GMST is parameterized via the layers’ effective heat capacities and heat exchange between layers. For the listed parameters, the sensitivity functions were derived numerically and analytically, allowing one to obtain an idea of how the mixed and deep ocean layers affect climate change and variability. To study climate change, a deterministic version of the model was used with radiative forcing parameterized by both stepwise and linear functions. In climate variability experiments, a stochastic version of the model was applied in which the radiative forcing is considered as a delta-correlated random process.
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spelling doaj.art-c1eff94d135e4d1c9461bae1288225f82023-11-23T17:06:37ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122022-08-01109121610.3390/jmse10091216On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and VariabilitySergei Soldatenko0St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 39, 14-th Lane V.O., Saint Petersburg 199178, RussiaThe ocean, one of the five major components of the Earth’s climate system, plays a key role in climate-forming processes, affecting its change and variability. The ocean influences climate over a wide range of time–space scales. To explore the climate, its components, interactions between them and, in particular, the effect of the ocean on weather and climate, researchers commonly use extremely complex mathematical models of the climate system that describe the atmospheric and ocean general circulations. However, this class of climate models requires enormous human and computing resources to simulate the climate system itself and to analyze the output results. For simple climate models, such as energy balance and similar models, the computational cost is insignificant, which is why these models represent a test tool to mimic a complex climate system and obtaining preliminary estimates of the influence of various internal and external factors on climate, its change and variability. The global mean surface temperature (GMST) and its fluctuations in time serve as critical indicators of changes in the climate system state. We apply a simple two-box ocean model to explore the effect of mixed and deep ocean layers on climate-forming processes and especially on climate change and variability. The effect of mixed and deep ocean layers on GMST is parameterized via the layers’ effective heat capacities and heat exchange between layers. For the listed parameters, the sensitivity functions were derived numerically and analytically, allowing one to obtain an idea of how the mixed and deep ocean layers affect climate change and variability. To study climate change, a deterministic version of the model was used with radiative forcing parameterized by both stepwise and linear functions. In climate variability experiments, a stochastic version of the model was applied in which the radiative forcing is considered as a delta-correlated random process.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/10/9/1216climate changeclimate variabilityocean mixed layerdeep oceanclimate thermal inertia
spellingShingle Sergei Soldatenko
On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
climate change
climate variability
ocean mixed layer
deep ocean
climate thermal inertia
title On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
title_full On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
title_fullStr On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
title_full_unstemmed On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
title_short On the Effects of Mixed and Deep Ocean Layers on Climate Change and Variability
title_sort on the effects of mixed and deep ocean layers on climate change and variability
topic climate change
climate variability
ocean mixed layer
deep ocean
climate thermal inertia
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/10/9/1216
work_keys_str_mv AT sergeisoldatenko ontheeffectsofmixedanddeepoceanlayersonclimatechangeandvariability