Persistence of the gateway-memory mechanism in process-resolving models

Determine whether the displacement of interbasin-gateway influence from equilibrium states to transient dynamics persists in climate models that resolve the eddy and gyre pathways omitted by the conservative five-box Atlantic-centered formulation.

Background

The conservative five-box model shows that gateway-route composition does not alter equilibrium folds because internal salt exchanges cancel under exact conservation, while distributed transit-time memory can affect transient stability. The discussion cautions that realistic ocean models contain eddy salt fluxes, gyre pathways, Southern Ocean processes, and other non-overturning routes excluded from the formulation. Whether the model’s central structural conclusion survives when those omitted processes are explicitly represented remains unresolved.

References

Whether that shift of emphasis survives in models that resolve the processes omitted here is an open question, and one that the present framework is not equipped to settle.

— Conservation Constraints and Distributed Advective Memory in a Reduced Model of Atlantic Overturning Hysteresis  (2609.24000 - Herho et al., 21 Sep 2026) in Section Discussion, final paragraph; reiterated in Section Conclusions