1. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Response of the North Atlantic Circulation to the realistic and anomalous wind stress Yongqi Gao, Helge Drange, Mats Bentsen and Jan Even Nilsen Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, IAP/CAS, China Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Norway Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Norway

2. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Micom  Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model (Bleck et al., 1992)  Mixed layer+Isopycnic layers below  Global domain with sea ice module

3. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Experimental Design  Spin-up time 180 yrs;  W 0, 1948-2004, three cycles;  W 1/2, 1948-2004, three cycles;  W 1, 1948-2004, three cycles;  W 2, 1948-2004, three cycles; Gao et al., updating, 2009

4. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 AMOC and Normalized AMOC W 2 W 1 W 1/2 W 0

5. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Simulated and Data-estimated Meridional Heat Transport Obs (red line):Trenberth and Caron (2001) W2W2 W 1/2 W0W0 W1W1

6. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Simulated Maximum Mixed Layer Depth W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2

7. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Simulated Isopycnal Volume Transport at 24 o N W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2

8. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009

9. Simulated Isopycnal Volume Transport at Section ABD W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2

10. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Mean Volume Transport at Northern Atlantic W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2

11. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Mean Dense Water Volume Transport at Northern Atlantic W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2

12. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Dense Water Formation Rate in the Irminger Sea basin And Normalized AMOC in W 1 (red) and W 0 (blue)

13. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009

14. Simulated Dense Water Volume Transport through Sections W0W0 W 1/2 W1W1 W2W2 24 o N AB

15. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Subpolar Gyre Index Obs (blue line): Hatun et al. 2005 W0W0 W2W2 W 1/2

16. Paris, EU-THOR, Nov25-26, 2009 Summing up  AMOC is sensitive to the strength of the wind stress  Wind stress is responsible for the short-term variabilities in the simulated AMOC  Long-term increasing trend in the simulated AMOC is mainly governed by the thermohaline forcing  Realistic wind stress can lift the AMOC in the subtropical North Atlantic by 7.3 Sv  Subpolar Gyre Index can be used as an potential indicator of the AMOC