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Climateprediction.net Thermohaline Circulation Experiment

It is no longer possible to download the 4 phase version of the climateprediction.net experiment, as we have distributed enough of these experiments. People who have already downloaded the 4th phase experiment can continue to run it for as many experiments as they choose.

The 4th phase investigates how climate might change in the event of a decrease in the strength of the thermohaline circulation - the large scale overturning of the world's oceans. This is topical because of recent media attention (and the film The Day After Tomorrow) and science we propose doing as part of the RAPID rapid climate change programme.

The fourth phase repeats the third phase of the standard experiment, only with different ocean surface properties. In the fourth phase we used patterns of North Atlantic sea surface temperature derived from some thermohaline circulation (THC) slowdown experiments to test the atmospheric responses to both a doubling of CO2 and a reduction in the strength of the Atlantic over-turning circulation. This isn't a prediction of how likely a THC slowdown is (it is predicted by some but not all climate models). This is a way of looking at how the atmosphere is likely to respond given such a slowdown: Will any changes be noticeable over and above the response to CO2 increase? Will the changes induced in the atmosphere act to speed up the THC again? Or will we enter a new ice age??

With thanks to Martin Sykes and UK_Nick

 Read more about the science behind this experiment

 Read about the experimental strategy of the standard, shorter experiment




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