Instruments deployed in the ocean starting in 2004 show that the Atlantic Ocean circulation has observably slowed over the past two decades, possibly to its weakest state in almost a millennium. Studies also suggest that the circulation has reached a dangerous tipping point in the past that sent it into a precipitous, unstoppable decline, and that it could hit that tipping point again as […]
A new study, led by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, and published in Nature Geoscience (paywall), pinpoints the causes of monthly and annual Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variation and finds a differing picture at two key locations. The AMOC, which carries warm water from the tropics northward and makes areas including north-west Europe warmer than […]
Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/25/atlantic-ocean-circulation-at-weakest-in-a-millennium-say-scientists?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Potsdam Institute: 02/25/2021 – ‘Never before in over 1000 years the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has been as weak as in the last decades. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Ireland, Britain […]
Guardian Gulf Stream current at its weakest in 1,600 years, studies show Warm current that has historically caused dramatic changes in climate is experiencing an unprecedented slowdown and may be less stable than thought – with potentially severe consequences The warm Atlantic current linked to severe and abrupt changes in the climate in the past […]