Atlantic overturning in decline? (original) (raw)

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 2–3 (2014) Cite this article

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To the Editor

Global ocean circulation is an important factor in climate variability and change. In particular, changes in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) have been implicated in ancient climate events1, as well as in recent climate anomalies such as the rapid warming of the North Atlantic Ocean in the mid-1990s2. A series of moored current meters and temperature sensors deployed in the Atlantic at 26° N known as the RAPID-MOCHA array has been used to monitor the strength of meridional overturning since 2004. The data indicate a decline in this strength over the period 2004–20123. Here, using additional observations and climate model simulations4,5,6, we suggest that this measured decline is not merely a short-term fluctuation, but is part of a substantial reduction in meridional overturning occurring on a decadal timescale.

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Figure 1: Labrador Sea density and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the RAPID science team for making the RAPID-MOCHA observations available (www.rapid.ac.uk/rapidmoc/). The EN3 data set was downloaded from the Met Office (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/). Thanks also to D. Smith for making the Smith and Murphy analysis available, and L. Shaffrey and the HiGEM project (http://higem.nerc.ac.uk/) for use of the HiGEM data. J.R. was supported by the the BNP-Paribas Foundation through the PRECLIDE project under the CNRS research convention agreement no. 30023488, and through the European Community's 7th Framework Programme through SPECS. D.H., E.H. and R.S. were supported by NERC through the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.

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  1. Department of Meteorology, NCAS Climate, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK
    Jon Robson, Dan Hodson, Ed Hawkins & Rowan Sutton

Authors

  1. Jon Robson
  2. Dan Hodson
  3. Ed Hawkins
  4. Rowan Sutton

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Correspondence toJon Robson.

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Robson, J., Hodson, D., Hawkins, E. et al. Atlantic overturning in decline?.Nature Geosci 7, 2–3 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2050

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