Bipolar seesaw
Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis, Annex VII: Glossary, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, defines the bipolar seesaw (also interhemispheric seesaw, interhemispheric asymmetry, hemispheric asymmetry) as: ‘A phenomenon in which temperature changes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres are related but out of phase, generally inferred to represent a change in the magnitude or sign of net heat transport across the equator. Originally called hemispheric asymmetry and linked to changes in thermohaline overturning circulation on multi-millennial scales (Mix et al., 1986), later named bipolar seesaw and applied to millennial scales (Broecker, 1998) with a similar thermohaline mechanism (Stocker and Johnsen, 2003). See also Meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and Deglacial or deglaciation or glacial termination.’
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