Observing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation yields a decade of inevitable surprises

2015/06/18 by Meric Srokosz, Harry L. Bryden · 8 citations
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Climate variability and models #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1255575

openalex publication_date 2015/06/18 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

The importance of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) heat transport for climate is well acknowledged. Climate models predict that the AMOC will slow down under global warming, with substantial impacts, but measurements of ocean circulation have been inadequate to evaluate these predictions. Observations over the past decade have changed that situation, providing a detailed picture of variations in the AMOC. These observations reveal a surprising degree of AMOC variability in terms of the intraannual range, the amplitude and phase of the seasonal cycle, the interannual changes in strength affecting the ocean heat content, and the decline of the AMOC over the decade, both of the latter two exceeding the variations seen in climate models.

Citations

• Interannual to decadal variability of outflow from the Labrador Sea
• Is the 2004-2012 reduction of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation significant?
• Exceptional twentieth-century slowdown in Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation
• Temporal Variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5°N
• Slowing of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at 25° N
• The stability of the MOC as diagnosed from model projections for pre-industrial, present and future climates
• South Atlantic overturning circulation at 24°S
• Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years
• Basin‐Wide Oceanographic Array Bridges the South Atlantic
• The Great Ocean Conveyor
• Thermohaline Convection with Two Stable Regimes of Flow

Cited by

• The evolution of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since 1980
• Weakening Atlantic overturning circulation causes South Atlantic salinity pile-up
• Natural variability has dominated Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since 1900
• A sea change in our view of overturning in the subpolar North Atlantic
• Industrial-era decline in subarctic Atlantic productivity
• Mismatch between marine plankton range movements and the velocity of climate change
• Anomalously weak Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning during the past 150 years
• Atlantic meridional overturning circulation [wikipedia]

Related

• The North Atlantic Ocean Is in a State of Reduced Overturning
• Past, present and future of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
• Should AMOC observations continue: how and why?
• Observations, inferences, and mechanisms of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: A review
• Natural variability has dominated Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since 1900