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We are two graduate students from MIT and we would like to share our experiences in carrying out the General Circulation Experiment in our GFD laboratory here.
Introduction
It is a well-established observation that there is more solar incoming radiation at the equator than at the poles and that the radiative heat loss at the poles is much stronger than at the equator. In order to keep a steady state system, there needs to be meridional, i.e. poleward, heat transport in the earth system. Both the atmosphere and the ocean contribute to this, but the mechanisms are quite different depending on the Rossby radius of deformation compared to the geometrical size of the domain in which the transport occurs. The reason is that motion initially is directed in one direction, but that the Coriolis force deviates this motion to the right in the Northern Hemisphere (left in the Southern Hemisphere).
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