两层正压准平衡海洋模型的中纬度定常风场强迫解

建立了风场强迫下考虑瑞利摩擦的水平二维两层正压准平衡海洋模型,并在中纬度大尺度理想风场强迫的情况下,进行了解析求解。结果表明,在西风急流强迫下,在理想海洋的西海岸以东的上层流场上,在西风急流处会出现较强的东向流;在接近β通道侧壁处则有西向逆流出现;在近西海岸处,在上述东向流的两侧有气旋性曲率与反气旋性曲率的流动;而下层流场的强度与上层流场大致相同,但流向大体相反。由理想西风急流异常强迫出的流场异常的分布形式与以上结果类似。与实际风场异常强迫下的北太平洋上层流场异常进行比较后可知,模型得到上层海洋的结果与实际情况有相像之处。最终,该海洋模型的解趋于风场强迫特解。     

The North Atlantic Oscillation as a source of stochastic forcing of the wind-driven ocean circulation

Observations show that at middle and high latitudes, the magnitude of stochastic wind stress forcing due to atmospheric weather is comparable to that of the seasonal cycle and will likely exert a significant influence on the ocean circulation. The focus of this work will be the contribution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to the stochastic forcing in the North Atlantic and its influence on the large-scale, wind-driven ocean circulation. To this end, a QG model of the North Atlantic Ocean was forced with the stochastic component of wind stress curl associated with the NAO signal. The ocean response is localized primarily in the western boundary region and can be conveniently understood using generalized stability analysis. Much of the variability is associated with the nonnormal influence of the bathymetry and inhomogeneities in the western boundary flow on the large-scale circulation. A more traditional statistical analysis of the circulation, however, reveals that there are very small and insignificant correlations between the NAO forcing and the ocean response within the western boundary region. This suggests that the dynamics of the ocean response to stochastic forcing may obscure any obvious coherence between the forcing and the response which is equally difficult to identify from observations.     

The North Atlantic Oscillation as a source of stochastic forcing of the wind-driven ocean circulation

Observations show that at middle and high latitudes, the magnitude of stochastic wind stress forcing due to atmospheric weather is comparable to that of the seasonal cycle and will likely exert a significant influence on the ocean circulation. The focus of this work will be the contribution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to the stochastic forcing in the North Atlantic and its influence on the large-scale, wind-driven ocean circulation. To this end, a QG model of the North Atlantic Ocean was forced with the stochastic component of wind stress curl associated with the NAO signal. The ocean response is localized primarily in the western boundary region and can be conveniently understood using generalized stability analysis. Much of the variability is associated with the nonnormal influence of the bathymetry and inhomogeneities in the western boundary flow on the large-scale circulation. A more traditional statistical analysis of the circulation, however, reveals that there are very small and insignificant correlations between the NAO forcing and the ocean response within the western boundary region. This suggests that the dynamics of the ocean response to stochastic forcing may obscure any obvious coherence between the forcing and the response which is equally difficult to identify from observations.     

Global monsoons in the mid-Holocene and oceanic feedback

The response of the six major summer monsoon systems (the North American monsoon, the northern Africa monsoon, the Asia monsoon, the northern Australasian monsoon, the South America monsoon and the southern Africa monsoon) to mid-Holocene orbital forcing has been investigated using a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model (FOAM), with the focus on the distinct roles of the direct insolation forcing and oceanic feedback. The simulation result is also found to compare well with the NCAR CSM. The direct effects of the change in insolation produce an enhancement of the Northern Hemisphere monsoons and a reduction of the Southern Hemisphere monsoons. Ocean feedbacks produce a further enhancement of the northern Africa monsoon and the North American monsoon. However, ocean feedbacks appear to weaken the Asia monsoon, although the overall effect (direct insolation forcing plus ocean feedback) remains a strengthened monsoon. The impact of ocean feedbacks on the South American and southern African monsoons is relatively small, and therefore these regions, especially the South America, experienced a reduced monsoon regime compared to present. However, there is a strong ocean feedback on the northern Australian monsoon that negates the direct effects of orbital changes and results in a strengthening of austral summer monsoon precipitation in this region. A new synthesis is made for mid-Holocene paleoenvironmental records and is compared with the model simulations. Overall, model simulations produce changes in regional climates that are generally consistent with paleoenvironmental observations.     

Response Process of Oceanto AtmosphericForcing and Optimal Response Frequency in the CZ Ocean Model

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Emulating AOGCM results using simple climate models

Three simple climate models (SCMs) are calibrated using simulations from atmosphere ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). In addition to using two conventional SCMs, results from a third simpler model developed specifically for this study are obtained. An easy to implement and comprehensive iterative procedure is applied that optimises the SCM emulation of global-mean surface temperature and total ocean heat content, and, if available in the SCM, of surface temperature over land, over the ocean and in both hemispheres, and of the global-mean ocean temperature profile. The method gives best-fit estimates as well as uncertainty intervals for the different SCM parameters. For the calibration, AOGCM simulations with two different types of forcing scenarios are used: pulse forcing simulations performed with 2 AOGCMs and gradually changing forcing simulations from 15 AOGCMs obtained within the framework of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The method is found to work well. For all possible combinations of SCMs and AOGCMs the emulation of AOGCM results could be improved. The obtained SCM parameters depend both on the AOGCM data and the type of forcing scenario. SCMs with a poor representation of the atmosphere thermal inertia are better able to emulate AOGCM results from gradually changing forcing than from pulse forcing simulations. Correct simultaneous emulation of both atmospheric temperatures and the ocean temperature profile by the SCMs strongly depends on the representation of the temperature gradient between the atmosphere and the mixed layer. Introducing climate sensitivities that are dependent on the forcing mechanism in the SCMs allows the emulation of AOGCM responses to carbon dioxide and solar insolation forcings equally well. Also, some SCM parameters are found to be very insensitive to the fitting, and the reduction of their uncertainty through the fitting procedure is only marginal, while other parameters change considerably. The very simple SCM is found to reproduce the AOGCM results as well as the other two comparably more sophisticated SCMs.     

海洋对ENSO和其他时间尺度上风应力振荡的响应

利用带通滤波方法，将FSU风应力资料分离成ENSO时间尺度上的分量及其剩余部分，将这两部分分别作用于模式海洋（2层热带太平洋区域模式），研究海洋对不同时间尺度大气变化的响应。结果表明：尺管ENSO时间尺度上的风应力分量只占风应力扰动总方差的30％左右，它却能激发出全部异常风应力强迫海洋时所产生的El Nino/La Nina现象和十分相近的SSTA变化周期与振幅。而其余占总异常风应力方差60％以上的部分强迫海洋仅能产生振幅较小的海表温度异常，在非ENSO和ENSO时间尺度上的风应力强迫下，海洋中可产生相近振幅的Kelvin波，但SSTA振幅却存在显著差别，表明海洋对大气扰动信号的频率非常敏感，这里从理论上对该现象作了解释和说明。     

The role of ocean dynamics in producing decadal climate variability in the North Pacific

 Decadal time scale climate variability in the North Pacific has implications for climate both locally and over North America. A crucial question is the degree to which this variability arises from coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions over the North Pacific that involve ocean dynamics, as opposed to either purely thermodynamic effects of the oceanic mixed layer integrating in situ the stochastic atmospheric forcing, or the teleconnected response to tropical variability. The part of the variability that is coming from local coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions involving ocean dynamics is potentially predictable by an ocean/atmosphere general circulation model (O/A GCM), and such predictions could (depending on the achievable lead time) have distinct societal benefits. This question is examined using the results of fully coupled O/A GCMs, as well as targeted numerical experiments with stand-alone ocean and atmosphere models individually. It is found that coupled ocean/atmosphere interactions that involve ocean dynamics are important to determining the strength and frequency of a decadal-time scale peak in the spectra of several oceanic variables in the Kuroshio extension region off Japan. Local stochastic atmospheric heat flux forcing, integrated by the oceanic mixed layer into a red spectrum, provides a noise background from which the signal must be extracted. Although teleconnected ENSO responses influence the North Pacific in the 2–7 years/cycle frequency band, it is shown that some decadal-time scale processes in the North Pacific proceed without ENSO. Likewise, although the effects of stochastic atmospheric forcing on ocean dynamics are discernible, a feedback path from the ocean to the atmosphere is suggested by the results. Received: 23 January 2000 / Accepted: 10 January 2001     

Relative roles of climate sensitivity and forcing in defining the ocean circulation response to climate change

The response of the ocean’s meridional overturning circulation (MOC) to increased greenhouse gas forcing is examined using a coupled model of intermediate complexity, including a dynamic 3-D ocean subcomponent. Parameters are the increase in CO₂ forcing (with stabilization after a specified time interval) and the model’s climate sensitivity. In this model, the cessation of deep sinking in the north “Atlantic” (hereinafter, a “collapse”), as indicated by changes in the MOC, behaves like a simple bifurcation. The final surface air temperature (SAT) change, which is closely predicted by the product of the radiative forcing and the climate sensitivity, determines whether a collapse occurs. The initial transient response in SAT is largely a function of the forcing increase, with higher sensitivity runs exhibiting delayed behavior; accordingly, high CO₂-low sensitivity scenarios can be assessed as a recovering or collapsing circulation shortly after stabilization, whereas low CO₂-high sensitivity scenarios require several hundred additional years to make such a determination. We also systemically examine how the rate of forcing, for a given CO₂ stabilization, affects the ocean response. In contrast with previous studies based on results using simpler ocean models, we find that except for a narrow range of marginally stable to marginally unstable scenarios, the forcing rate has little impact on whether the run collapses or recovers. In this narrow range, however, forcing increases on a time scale of slow ocean advective processes results in weaker declines in overturning strength and can permit a run to recover that would otherwise collapse.     

Wind-induced variability of ocean gyres

Stochastic wind forcing of ocean gyre circulations is examined using the ideas of generalized linear stability theory applied to the barotropic vorticity equation of a idealized ocean. The barotropic vorticity equation is linearized about a time-evolving basic state flow, and the spatial patterns of stochastic surface wind stress curl that are optimal for increasing the variability of the ocean are computed. The most disruptive pattern of stochastic forcing is found to be insensitive to: measures of variance, the optimization time, the temporal decorrelation time of the stochastic forcing, the time evolution of the basic state flow, the stability of the basic state flow, basin size, gyre symmetry, and the presence of bathymetry. In addition, the most disruptive pattern of wind stress curl is reminiscent of that which would be associated with individual large-scale weather systems in the atmosphere, and changes in the amplitude of the atmospheric teleconnection patterns. The response of a nonlinear model to stochastic forcing described by the optimal patterns is examined, and the dynamics of the response discussed.     

Transient simulation of the last glacial inception. Part II: sensitivity and feedback analysis

The sensitivity of the last glacial-inception (around 115 kyr BP, 115,000 years before present) to different feedback mechanisms has been analysed by using the Earth system model of intermediate complexity CLIMBER-2. CLIMBER-2 includes dynamic modules of the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere and inland ice, the last of which was added recently by utilising the three-dimensonal polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS. We performed a set of transient experiments starting at the middle of the Eemiam interglacial and ran the model for 26,000 years with time-dependent orbital forcing and observed changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration (CO₂ forcing). The role of vegetation and ocean feedback, CO₂ forcing, mineral dust, thermohaline circulation and orbital insolation were closely investigated. In our model, glacial inception, as a bifurcation in the climate system, appears in nearly all sensitivity runs including a run with constant atmospheric CO₂ concentration of 280 ppmv, a typical interglacial value, and simulations with prescribed present-day sea-surface temperatures or vegetation cover—although the rate of the growth of ice-sheets growth is smaller than in the case of the fully interactive model. Only if we run the fully interactive model with constant present-day insolation and apply present-day CO₂ forcing does no glacial inception appear at all. This implies that, within our model, the orbital forcing alone is sufficient to trigger the interglacial–glacial transition, while vegetation, ocean and atmospheric CO₂ concentration only provide additional, although important, positive feedbacks. In addition, we found that possible reorganisations of the thermohaline circulation influence the distribution of inland ice.     

Variability of sea surface salinity in stochastically forced systems

The influences of horizontal advection and horizontal diffusion on the variability of sea surface salinity in stochastically forced systems are investigated. Basic ideas are developed using a two dimensional box model and then extended to a more realistic three dimensional ocean general circulation model. It is shown that, in the absence of advection and diffusion, the ocean response is essentially that predicted by Taylor's random walk model. Advection becomes important when the advective time scale is less than the response time of the mixed layer to the stochastic forcing. Advection of parcels from regions of upwelling into regions of downwelling limits their exposure time to the stochastic forcing and thus the maximum attainable variance in the system (variance increases linearly with time). Regions of upwelling and downwelling may be introduced through the thermohaline overturning circulation or by the wind driven Ekman transport, depending on the specific model configuration. Horizontal diffusion is found to be important when the diffusive time scale is less than the mixed layer response time. The primary role of diffusion is to reduce the effective stochastic forcing through rapid mixing of uncorrelated surface forcing events. Because sea surface salinity does not have a negative feedback with the atmosphere, it is more strongly influenced by weak horizontal processes than sea surface temperature (SST). Accurate knowledge of the stochastic forcing amplitude, decorrelation time, and length scale and distribution are critical to model the variance of sea surface salinity. Aspects of the ocean model which strongly influence the variability of sea surface salinity include the surface velocity, horizontal diffusivity, and the mixed layer depth. Implications on modeling of the ocean and coupled ocean-atmosphere systems are discussed.     

On tidal resonance in the global ocean and the back‐effect of coastal tides upon open‐ocean tides

Abstract

The resonance of semi‐diurnal tidal elevations is investigated with a forward numerical forced damped global tide model and an analytical model of forced‐damped tides in a deep ocean basin coupled to a shelf. The analytical model contains the classical half‐wavelength and quarter‐wavelength resonances in the deep ocean and shelf, respectively, as well as a forcing‐scale dependence which depends on the ratio of the phase speed of open‐ocean gravity waves to that of the astronomical forcing. In the analytical model, when the deep ocean and shelf resonate separately at the same frequency, the resonance in the coupled system shifts to frequencies slightly higher and lower than the original frequency, such that a ‘double bump’ is seen in plots of elevation amplitude versus frequency. The addition of a shelf to a resonant open ocean tends to reduce open‐ocean tides, especially when the shelf is also near resonance. The magnitude of this ‘back‐effect’ is controlled by shelf friction. A weakly damped resonant shelf has a larger back‐effect on the open‐ocean tide than does a strongly damped shelf. Numerical simulations largely bear out the analytical model predictions, at least qualitatively. Idealized simulations show that continents enhance tides by enabling the half‐wavelength resonance. Simulations with realistic geometry and topography but varying longitudinal structure in the astronomical forcing display an influence of the forcing scale on tidal amplitudes somewhat similar to that seen in the analytical model. A frequency sweep in the semi‐diurnal band in experiments with realistic geometry and topography reveals weakly resonant peaks in the amplitudes of several shelf regions and in the globally averaged open‐ocean amplitudes. Finally, the back‐effect of the shelf upon the open ocean is seen in simulations in which locations of resonant coastal tides are blocked out and open‐ocean tidal elevations are significantly altered (increased, generally) as a result.     

On the predictability of decadal changes in the North Pacific

 The predictability of decadal changes in the North Pacific is investigated with an ocean general circulation model forced by simplified and realistic atmospheric conditions. First, the model is forced by a spatially fixed wind stress anomaly pattern characteristic for decadal North Pacific climate variations. The time evolution of the wind stress anomaly is chosen to be sinusoidal, with a period of 20 years. In this experiment different physical processes are found to be important for the decadal variations: baroclinic Rossby waves dominate the response. They move westward and lead to an adjustment of the subtropical and subpolar gyre circulations in such a way that anomalous temperatures in the central North Pacific develop as a delayed response to the preceding wind stress anomalies. This delayed response provides not only a negative feedback but also bears the potential for long-term predictions of upper ocean temperature changes in the central North Pacific. It is shown by additional experiments that once these Rossby waves have been excited, decadal changes of the upper ocean temperatures in the central North Pacific evolve without any further anomalous atmospheric forcing. In the second part, the model is forced by surface heat flux and wind stress observations for the period 1949–1993. It is shown that the same physical processes which were found to be important in the simplified experiments also govern the evolution of the upper ocean in this more realistic simulation. The 1976/77 cooling can be mainly attributed to anomalously strong horizontal advection due to the delayed response to persistent wind stress curl anomalies in the early 1970s rather than local anomalous atmospheric forcing. This decadal change could have been predicted some years in advance. The subsequent warming in the late 1980s, however, cannot be mainly explained by advection. In this case, local anomalous atmospheric forcing needs to be considered. Received: 6 July 1998 / Accepted: 16 October 1999     

The relative importance of tropical variability forced from the North Pacific through ocean pathways

To what extent is tropical variability forced from the North Pacific through ocean pathways relative to locally generated variability and variability forced through the atmosphere? To address this question, in this study we use an anomaly-coupled model, consisting of a global, atmospheric general circulation model and a 4½-layer, reduced-gravity, Pacific-Ocean model. Three solutions are obtained; with coupling over the entire basin (CNT), with coupling confined to the tropics and wind stress and heat fluxes in the North and South Pacific specified by climatology (TP), and with coupling confined to the Tropics and wind stress and heat fluxes in the North Pacific specified by output from CNT (NPF). It is found that there are two distinct signals forced in the North Pacific that can impact the tropics through ocean pathways. These two signals are forced by wind stress and surface heat flux anomalies in the subtropical North Pacific. The first signal is relatively fast, impacts tropical variability less than a year after forcing, is triggered from November to March, and propagates as a first-mode baroclinic Rossby wave. The second signal is only triggered during springtime when buoyancy forcing can effectively generate higher-order baroclinic modes through subduction anomalies into the permanent thermocline, and it reaches the equator 4–5 years after forcing. The slow signal is found to initiate tropical variability more efficiently than the fast signal with one standard deviation in subtropical zonal wind stress forcing tropical SST anomalies centered on the equator at 135°W of approximately 0.5°C. Allowing extratropically forced tropical variability is found to shift primarily 2-year ENSO variability in a tropics-alone simulation to a more realistic range of 2–6 years.     

Remote effects of tropical cyclone wind forcing over the western Pacific on the eastern equatorial ocean

An ocean general circulation model （OGCM） is used to demonstrate remote effects of tropical cyclone wind （TCW） forcing in the tropical Pacific. The signature of TCW forcing is explicitly extracted using a locally weighted quadratic least=squares regression （called as LOESS） method from six-hour satellite surface wind data; the extracted TCW component can then be additionally taken into account or not in ocean modeling, allowing isolation of its effects on the ocean in a clean and clear way. In this paper, seasonally varying TCW fields in year 2008 are extracted from satellite data which are prescribed as a repeated annual cycle over the western Pacific regions off the equator （poleward of 10°N/S）; two long-term OGCM experiments are performed and compared, one with the TCW forcing part included additionally and the other not. Large, persistent thermal perturbations （cooling in the mixed layer （ML） and warming in the thermocline） are induced locally in the western tropical Pacific, which are seen to spread with the mean ocean circulation pathways around the tropical basin. In particular, a remote ocean response emerges in the eastern equatorial Pacific to the prescribed off-equatorial TCW forcing, characterized by a cooling in the mixed layer and a warming in the thermocline. Heat budget analyses indicate that the vertical mixing is a dominant process responsible for the SST cooling in the eastern equatorial Pacific. Further studies are clearly needed to demonstrate the significance of these results in a coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling context.     

Remote Efects of Tropical Cyclone Wind Forcing over the Western Pacific on the Eastern Equatorial Ocean

An ocean general circulation model(OGCM)is used to demonstrate remote efects of tropical cyclone wind(TCW)forcing in the tropical Pacific.The signature of TCW forcing is explicitly extracted using a locally weighted quadratic least-squares regression(called as LOESS)method from six-hour satellite surface wind data;the extracted TCW component can then be additionally taken into account or not in ocean modeling,allowing isolation of its efects on the ocean in a clean and clear way.In this paper,seasonally varying TCW fields in year 2008 are extracted from satellite data which are prescribed as a repeated annual cycle over the western Pacific regions of the equator(poleward of 10 N/S);two long-term OGCM experiments are performed and compared,one with the TCW forcing part included additionally and the other not.Large,persistent thermal perturbations(cooling in the mixed layer(ML)and warming in the thermocline)are induced locally in the western tropical Pacific,which are seen to spread with the mean ocean circulation pathways around the tropical basin.In particular,a remote ocean response emerges in the eastern equatorial Pacific to the prescribed of-equatorial TCW forcing,characterized by a cooling in the mixed layer and a warming in the thermocline.Heat budget analyses indicate that the vertical mixing is a dominant process responsible for the SST cooling in the eastern equatorial Pacific.Further studies are clearly needed to demonstrate the significance of these results in a coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling context.     

The role of ENSO in global ocean temperature changes during 1955–2011 simulated with a 1D climate model

Global average ocean temperature variations to 2,000 m depth during 1955–2011 are simulated with a 40 layer 1D forcing-feedback-mixing model for three forcing cases. The first case uses standard anthropogenic and volcanic external radiative forcings. The second adds non-radiative internal forcing (ocean mixing changes initiated in the top 200 m) proportional to the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) to represent an internal mode of natural variability. The third case further adds ENSO-related radiative forcing proportional to MEI as a possible natural cloud forcing mechanism associated with atmospheric circulation changes. The model adjustable parameters are net radiative feedback, effective diffusivities, and internal radiative (e.g., cloud) and non-radiative (ocean mixing) forcing coefficients at adjustable time lags. Model output is compared to Levitus ocean temperature changes in 50 m layers during 1955–2011 to 700 m depth, and to lag regression coefficients between satellite radiative flux variations and sea surface temperature between 2000 and 2010. A net feedback parameter of 1.7Wm^?2 K^?1 with only anthropogenic and volcanic forcings increases to 2.8Wm^?2 K^?1 when all ENSO forcings (which are one-third radiative) are included, along with better agreement between model and observations. The results suggest ENSO can influence multi-decadal temperature trends, and that internal radiative forcing of the climate system affects the diagnosis of feedbacks. Also, the relatively small differences in model ocean warming associated with the three cases suggests that the observed levels of ocean warming since the 1950s is not a very strong constraint on our estimates of climate sensitivity.     

Mid-Holocene monsoons: a multi-model analysis of the inter-hemispheric differences in the responses to orbital forcing and ocean feedbacks

The response of monsoon circulation in the northern and southern hemisphere to 6?ka orbital forcing has been examined in 17 atmospheric general circulation models and 11 coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models. The atmospheric response to increased summer insolation at 6?ka in the northern subtropics strengthens the northern-hemisphere summer monsoons and leads to increased monsoonal precipitation in western North America, northern Africa and China; ocean feedbacks amplify this response and lead to further increase in monsoon precipitation in these three regions. The atmospheric response to reduced summer insolation at 6?ka in the southern subtropics weakens the southern-hemisphere summer monsoons and leads to decreased monsoonal precipitation in northern South America, southern Africa and northern Australia; ocean feedbacks weaken this response so that the decrease in rainfall is smaller than might otherwise be expected. The role of the ocean in monsoonal circulation in other regions is more complex. There is no discernable impact of orbital forcing in the monsoon region of North America in the atmosphere-only simulations but a strong increase in precipitation in the ocean–atmosphere simulations. In contrast, there is a strong atmospheric response to orbital forcing over northern India but ocean feedback reduces the strength of the change in the monsoon although it still remains stronger than today. Although there are differences in magnitude and exact location of regional precipitation changes from model to model, the same basic mechanisms are involved in the oceanic modulation of the response to orbital forcing and this gives rise to a robust ensemble response for each of the monsoon systems. Comparison of simulated and reconstructed changes in regional climate suggest that the coupled ocean–atmosphere simulations produce more realistic changes in the northern-hemisphere monsoons than atmosphere-only simulations, though they underestimate the observed changes in precipitation in all regions. Evaluation of the southern-hemisphere monsoons is limited by lack of quantitative reconstructions, but suggest that model skill in simulating these monsoons is limited.     

Overturning and wind-driven circulation in a low-order ocean–atmosphere model

A low-order ocean–atmosphere model is presented which combines coupling through heat exchange at the interface and wind stress forcing. The coupling terms are derived from the boundary conditions and the forcing terms of the constituents. Both the ocean and the atmosphere model are based on Galerkin truncations of the basic fluid dynamical equations. Hence, the coupled model can readily be extended to include more physics and more detail. The model presented here is the simplest of a hierarchy of low-order ocean–atmosphere models. The behaviour of the coupled model is investigated by means of geometric singular perturbation theory and bifurcation analysis. Two ways are found in which the slow time scales can play a role in the coupled dynamics. In the first scenario, a limit cycle on the overturning time scale is created. The associated oscillatory behaviour is governed by internal ocean dynamics. In the second scenario, intermittent behaviour occurs between periodic and chaotic regimes in parameter space.