Recent direct observations of the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) show a decline of 10-15% since 2004. Is this a temporary fluctuation or part of a longer-term decline? A new analysis suggests that we might expect a further decline in the AMOC over the coming decade, which could impact on the climate of Europe and beyond. Continue reading Atlantic overturning in decline?
Category Archives: Atlantic
Predicting changes in North Atlantic temperatures
The Earth is a complex system of interacting components, such as the atmosphere and ocean, which produce a wide variety of natural variability. This natural variability ensures that the evolution of a particular region’s climate, e.g. that of Western Europe, could be completely different to another region, or indeed the global mean climate. Such variability can impact on many areas of society; for example winter energy usage, or agriculture in sensitive regions. Continue reading Predicting changes in North Atlantic temperatures
Reconstructing Atlantic atmospheric variability
In a previous post I discussed the Old Weather project which is using volunteers to transcribe the hand-written weather data from Royal Navy ships logs in the World War 1 period. The good news is the first 243 ships have been completed (providing data scattered throughout the period 1914-1923), and some simple analysis shows whether this data can help reconstruct past Atlantic atmospheric variability. Continue reading Reconstructing Atlantic atmospheric variability
Hysteresis of the Atlantic MOC in an AOGCM
UPDATE (16/06/11) – the paper describing this work has now been published and highlighted.
The potential for a rapid collapse in the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation (AMOC) has long been recognised. The pioneering work of Stommel first suggested that the density driven circulation in the Atlantic Ocean has two equilibrium states, either ‘on’ or ‘off’. If the climate is altered, a transition may occur between these states which is not reversible by returning the climate to its previous regime (this irreversibility is termed ‘hysteresis‘). Continue reading Hysteresis of the Atlantic MOC in an AOGCM
Atlantic multi-decadal variability
Observations of Atlantic SSTs show significant multi-decadal variability since 1870 (see red line in figure 2 below), often termed the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO), though there is no clear evidence that it is really an ‘oscillation’. Continue reading Atlantic multi-decadal variability