Nonlinear response of global monsoon precipitation to Atlantic
overturn-ing strength variations during Marine Isotope Stage 3
Abstract
Monsoon rainfall proxy records show clear millennial variations
corresponding to abrupt climate events in Greenland ice cores during
Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3). The occurrence of these abrupt climate
changes is associated with Atlantic Meridio-nal Overturning Circulation
(AMOC) strength variations which greatly impact the global oceanic
energy transport. Hence, the AMOC most likely plays a key role in
modulating the global monsoon rainfall at millennial time scale. No
modeling work has hitherto investigated the global monsoon system
response to AMOC changes under a MIS3 background climate. Using a
coupled climate model CCSM3, we simu-lated MIS3 climate using true 38 ka
before present boundary conditions and per-formed a set of freshwater
hosing/extraction experiments. We show not only agreement between
modeling results and proxies of monsoon rainfall within global monsoon
domain but also highlights a nonlinear relationship between AMOC
strength and annual mean global monsoon precipitation related to oceanic
heat transport constraints. During MIS3, a weakened AMOC could lead to
an increase of annual mean global monsoon rainfall dominated by the
southern hemisphere, whereas northern hemisphere monsoon rainfall
decreases. Above about 16 Sverdrups a further strengthening of the AMOC
has no significant impact on hemi-spheric and global monsoon domain
annual mean rainfall. The seasonal monsoon rainfall showed same
asymmetric response like annual mean both hemispherical and globally.