The North Atlantic Ocean is in a state of reduced overturning

Smeed, David A. and Josey, Simon and Johns, William and Moat, Bengamin and Frajka-Williams, Eleanor and Rayner, D. and Meinen, Christopher and Baringer, Molly and Bryden, Harry and McCarthy, Gerard


abstract: The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is responsible for a variable and climatically important northward transport of heat. Using data from an array of instruments that span theAtlantic at 26N, we show that the AMOC has been in a state of reduced overturning since 2008 as compared to 2004–2008. This change of AMOC state is concurrent with other changes in the North Atlantic such as a northward shift and broadening of the Gulf Stream and altered patterns of heat content and sea surface temperature. These changes resemble the response to a declining AMOC predicted by coupled climate models. Concurrent changes in air-sea fluxes close to the western boundary reveal that the changes in ocean heat transport and sea surface temperature have altered the pattern of ocean-atmosphere heat exchange over the North Atlantic. These results provide strong observational evidence that the AMOC is a major factor in decadal-scale variability of North Atlantic climate

@article{Smeed-etal-2018,
  author = {Smeed, David A. and Josey, Simon and Johns, William and Moat, Bengamin and Frajka-Williams, Eleanor and Rayner, D. and Meinen, Christopher and Baringer, Molly and Bryden, Harry and McCarthy, Gerard},
  title = {The North Atlantic Ocean is in a state of reduced overturning},
  journal = {Geophys. Res. Lett.},
  volume = {45},
  pages = {1527--1533},
  doi = {10.1002/2017GL076350},
  url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017GL076350},
  year = {2018}
}