Bifurcation Structure of Thermohaline Millennial Oscillations

The question of the generation of millennial oscillations by internal ocean dynamics is studied through deliberate use of the simplest geometry and surface forcing, namely a hemispheric ocean with time-independent mixed boundary conditions (autonomous system). The lowest-order model that supports free oscillations has three horizontal and two vertical boxes. The essential ingredients permitting the existence of the oscillations are turbulent mixing and freshwater forcing. The finite amplitude oscillations share the advective–convective–diffusive characteristics of neighboring stable thermal and haline steady states. There are limits to the quantity of precipitation in polar regions for the existence of oscillatory states. When the freshwater forcing amplitude is increased, the system evolves from a stable thermal state through a global bifurcation to a finite amplitude limit cycle. The period of the limit cycle remains constant when freshwater is increased until at a second global bifurcation it ...