Multiple thermal Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation thresholds in the intermediate complexity model Bern3D

Abstract

Variations in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) are associated with Northern Hemispheric and global climate shifts. Thermal thresholds of the AMOC have been found in a hierarchy of numerical circulation models, and there is an increasing body of evidence for the existence of highly sensitive AMOC modes where small perturbations can cause disproportionately large circulation and hence climatic changes. We discovered such thresholds in simulations with the intermediate-complexity Earth system model Bern3D, which is highly computationally efficient, allowing for studying this non-linear behaviour systematically over entire glacial cycles. By simulating the AMOC under different magnitudes of orbitally paced changes in radiative forcing over the last 788 000 years, we show that up to three thermal thresholds are crossed during glacial cycles in Bern3D and that thermal forcing could have destabilised the AMOC repeatedly. We present the circulation and sea ice patterns that characterise the stable circulation modes between which this model oscillates during a glacial cycle and assess how often and when thermal forcing could have preconditioned the Bern3D AMOC for abrupt shifts over the last 788 kyr.