HR: 0800h
AN: PP51C-0626    [Abstracts]
TI: Effect of an Open Bering Strait on the Climate of the Northern Hemisphere
AU: * Sandal, C K
EM: sandal@ocean.fsu.edu
AF: Florida State University, 0102 OSB, West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306 United States
AU: Nof, D
EM: nof@ocean.fsu.edu
AF: Florida State University, 0102 OSB, West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306 United States
AB: The GISP II ice core record from Greenland shows a sudden increase in mean atmospheric and oceanic temperature at the beginning of the Holocene. A rough calculation of the change in atmospheric surface temperature due to a change in albedo, connected with the disappearance of large continental ice sheets, can account for approximately half of the mean atmospheric temperature change. At the beginning of the Holocene the Bering Strait opened for through flow of water, due to a rise in sea level, allowing the island rule to come into effect. In essence, the island rule states that, given no convection in the North Atlantic and an open Bering Strait southern winds force 4 Sverdrups of surface water into the South Atlantic, which exits the North Atlantic through the Arctic and into the Pacific. It is suggested here that the remaining temperature increase is due to the restart of convection, as an open Bering Strait allowed the low salinity layer over the convection zone to be flushed out through the Arctic and the Bering Strait. This in turn brought warm waters northward, releasing heat to the atmosphere as the waters cooled at the convection site. An analytical approach is used to calculate the change in oceanic and atmospheric temperatures as one goes from a closed to an open Bering Strait. A modification of the island rule equations are used, along with heat equations for the atmosphere and ocean, conservation of salinity and the equation of state.
DE: 1605 Abrupt/rapid climate change (4901, 8408)
DE: 4901 Abrupt/rapid climate change (1605)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005