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??
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Read more about the science behind this experiment
Read about the experimental strategy of the standard, shorter experiment
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