Integrations of coupled climate models with mixed-layer and fixed-current ocean components are used to explore the climatic response to varying magnitudes of ocean circulation. Four mixed-layer ocean experiments without ocean heat transports are performed using two different atmosphere–land components—the new GFDL AM2 and the GFDL Manabe Climate Model (MCM)—and two different sea ice components,...

Volume 1, The Earth system: physical and chemical dimensions of global environmental change, pp 557–579 Ocean circulation is one of the major elements of climate, moving heat, freshwater, nutrients and dissolved gases. Ocean circulation at the largest spatial scales and long time scales contains many elements that are in common in the different oceans. Understanding the processes that drive the...