Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slo...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:526720 2023-05-15T14:55:05+02:00 Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic Holliday, N. Penny Bersch, Manfred Berx, Barbara Chafik, Léon Cunningham, Stuart Florindo-López, Cristian Hátún, Hjálmar Johns, William Josey, Simon A. Larsen, Karin Margretha H. Mulet, Sandrine Oltmanns, Marilena Reverdin, Gilles Rossby, Tom Thierry, Virginie Valdimarsson, Hedinn Yashayaev, Igor 2020-01-29 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/1/s41467-020-14474-y.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y en eng https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/1/s41467-020-14474-y.pdf Holliday, N. Penny orcid:0000-0002-9733-8002 Bersch, Manfred; Berx, Barbara; Chafik, Léon; Cunningham, Stuart; Florindo-López, Cristian; Hátún, Hjálmar; Johns, William; Josey, Simon A. orcid:0000-0002-1683-8831 Larsen, Karin Margretha H.; Mulet, Sandrine; Oltmanns, Marilena orcid:0000-0002-8959-4938 Reverdin, Gilles; Rossby, Tom; Thierry, Virginie; Valdimarsson, Hedinn; Yashayaev, Igor. 2020 Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic. Nature Communications, 11 (1), 585. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2020 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y 2023-02-04T19:50:05Z The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slowdown. We show that the eastern subpolar North Atlantic underwent extreme freshening during 2012 to 2016, with a magnitude never seen before in 120 years of measurements. The cause was unusual winter wind patterns driving major changes in ocean circulation, including slowing of the North Atlantic Current and diversion of Arctic freshwater from the western boundary into the eastern basins. We find that wind-driven routing of Arctic-origin freshwater intimately links conditions on the North West Atlantic shelf and slope region with the eastern subpolar basins. This reveals the importance of atmospheric forcing of intra-basin circulation in determining the salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic north atlantic current North Atlantic North West Atlantic Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Arctic Nature Communications 11 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slowdown. We show that the eastern subpolar North Atlantic underwent extreme freshening during 2012 to 2016, with a magnitude never seen before in 120 years of measurements. The cause was unusual winter wind patterns driving major changes in ocean circulation, including slowing of the North Atlantic Current and diversion of Arctic freshwater from the western boundary into the eastern basins. We find that wind-driven routing of Arctic-origin freshwater intimately links conditions on the North West Atlantic shelf and slope region with the eastern subpolar basins. This reveals the importance of atmospheric forcing of intra-basin circulation in determining the salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Holliday, N. Penny Bersch, Manfred Berx, Barbara Chafik, Léon Cunningham, Stuart Florindo-López, Cristian Hátún, Hjálmar Johns, William Josey, Simon A. Larsen, Karin Margretha H. Mulet, Sandrine Oltmanns, Marilena Reverdin, Gilles Rossby, Tom Thierry, Virginie Valdimarsson, Hedinn Yashayaev, Igor |
spellingShingle |
Holliday, N. Penny Bersch, Manfred Berx, Barbara Chafik, Léon Cunningham, Stuart Florindo-López, Cristian Hátún, Hjálmar Johns, William Josey, Simon A. Larsen, Karin Margretha H. Mulet, Sandrine Oltmanns, Marilena Reverdin, Gilles Rossby, Tom Thierry, Virginie Valdimarsson, Hedinn Yashayaev, Igor Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
author_facet |
Holliday, N. Penny Bersch, Manfred Berx, Barbara Chafik, Léon Cunningham, Stuart Florindo-López, Cristian Hátún, Hjálmar Johns, William Josey, Simon A. Larsen, Karin Margretha H. Mulet, Sandrine Oltmanns, Marilena Reverdin, Gilles Rossby, Tom Thierry, Virginie Valdimarsson, Hedinn Yashayaev, Igor |
author_sort |
Holliday, N. Penny |
title |
Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
title_short |
Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full |
Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic |
title_sort |
ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar north atlantic |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/1/s41467-020-14474-y.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic north atlantic current North Atlantic North West Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Arctic north atlantic current North Atlantic North West Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526720/1/s41467-020-14474-y.pdf Holliday, N. Penny orcid:0000-0002-9733-8002 Bersch, Manfred; Berx, Barbara; Chafik, Léon; Cunningham, Stuart; Florindo-López, Cristian; Hátún, Hjálmar; Johns, William; Josey, Simon A. orcid:0000-0002-1683-8831 Larsen, Karin Margretha H.; Mulet, Sandrine; Oltmanns, Marilena orcid:0000-0002-8959-4938 Reverdin, Gilles; Rossby, Tom; Thierry, Virginie; Valdimarsson, Hedinn; Yashayaev, Igor. 2020 Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic. Nature Communications, 11 (1), 585. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766326868290568192 |