Atlantic meridional overturning circulation increases flood risk along the United States southeast coast ...

• Main Authors: Volkov, Denis, Zhang, Kate, Johns, William, Willis, Joshua, Hobbs, Will, Goes, Marlos, Zhang, Hong, Menemenlis, Dimitris
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-1944; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5017595

<!--!introduction!--> The system of oceanic flows constituting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) moves heat and other properties to the subpolar North Atlantic, controlling regional climate, weather, sea levels, and ecosystems. Climate models suggest a potential AMOC slowdown towards the end of the 21 st century due to anthropogenic forcing, which would accelerate coastal sea level rise along the western boundary and dramatically increase coastal flood risk. While the slowdown has not been observed to date, we show here that the AMOC-induced intrinsic changes in gyre-scale heat content, superimposed on the global mean sea level rise, are already influencing the frequency of floods along the United States southeastern seaboard. For the South Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Mexico coasts, using observations and an ocean state estimate, we have established a strong link between coastal sea level, the associated flood frequency, and gyre-scale dynamic sea level and oceanic heat content ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...