3 ms·
My pet hypothesis on the flip to glaciation is that the Northern Ferrel Cell collapses [1], allowing the merger of the Polar and Hadley cells. One result of tha
by phkahler 3y ago
My pet hypothesis on the flip to glaciation is that the Northern Ferrel Cell collapses [1], allowing the merger of the Polar and Hadley cells. One result of that would be polar air flowing down all the way to the equator over the entire northern hemisphere. Another effect would be prolonged exposure of rising equatorial air to the upper atmosphere (close to space) which would cool it on the way to the pole. Once the north is snow covered this pattern might become very stable for 100K years until some other tipping point is reached (say low ocean levels). IANA climate researcher, so this is just wild speculation on my part and may have no basis in reality ;-) But this smoothing of the jet stream seems like it could be a precursor to the evening out of flows I imagine.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_circulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_circulation
- _nalply 3y agoYour hypothesis reminds me of the Gulf stream collapse hypothesis. Because the Gulf stream heats Europe this would mean Europe will be cooler and probably drier than now. I remember that in the seventies in Switzerland people were discussing the return of the ice age. The glaciers covered more than 80% of Switzerland and carved out the lakes in the plateau and on the edge of the Alps. I vividly remember an artist's visualization of this event: a large bluish glacier looming behind the houses of the old city of Bern.