The role of individual surface flux components in the passive and active ocean heat uptake

Abstract

Surface flux perturbations (heat, freshwater, and wind) due to an increase of atmospheric CO2 cause significant intermodel spread in ocean heat uptake; however, the mechanism underlying their impact is not very well understood. Here, we use ocean model experiments to isolate the impact of each perturbation on the ocean heat uptake components, focusing on surface heat flux anomalies caused directly by atmospheric CO2 increase (passive) and indirectly by ocean circulation change (active). Surface heat flux perturbations cause the passive heat uptake, while all the surface flux perturbations influence ocean heat uptake through the active component. While model results have implied that the active component increases ocean heat uptake because of the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), we find that it depends more on the shallow circulation change patterns. Surface heat flux perturbation causes most of the AMOC weakening, yet it causes a net global active heat loss (12% of the total uptake), which occurs because the active heat loss in the tropical Pacific through the subtropical cell weakening is greater than the active heat gain in the subpolar Atlantic through AMOC weakening. Freshwater perturbation weakens the AMOC a little more, but increases the subpolar Atlantic heat uptake a great deal through a large weakening of the subpolar gyre, thereby causing a large global active heat gain (34% of the total uptake). Wind perturbation also causes an active heat loss largely through the poleward shift of the Southern Hemisphere subtropical cells.