Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean
Observations show that the upper 2 km of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean cooled throughout 2010 and remained cold until at least December 2011. We show that these cold anomalies are partly driven by anomalous air-sea exchange during the cold winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 and, more surprisi...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1983/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84889971677&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
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ftubristolcris:oai:research-information.bris.ac.uk:publications/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 2024-02-04T10:02:21+01:00 Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean Cunningham, Stuart A. Roberts, Christopher D. Frajka-Williams, Eleanor Johns, William E. Hobbs, Will Palmer, Matthew D. Rayner, Darren Smeed, David A. McCarthy, Gerard 2013-12-16 https://hdl.handle.net/1983/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84889971677&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Cunningham , S A , Roberts , C D , Frajka-Williams , E , Johns , W E , Hobbs , W , Palmer , M D , Rayner , D , Smeed , D A & McCarthy , G 2013 , ' Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean ' , Geophysical Research Letters , vol. 40 , no. 23 , pp. 6202-6207 . https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Atlantic Ocean heat transport Atlantic subtropical gyre ocean heat content ocean observing system RAPID mooring array article 2013 ftubristolcris https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 2024-01-11T23:49:12Z Observations show that the upper 2 km of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean cooled throughout 2010 and remained cold until at least December 2011. We show that these cold anomalies are partly driven by anomalous air-sea exchange during the cold winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 and, more surprisingly, by extreme interannual variability in the ocean's northward heat transport at 26.5°N. This cooling driven by the ocean's meridional heat transport affects deeper layers isolated from the atmosphere on annual timescales and water that is entrained into the winter mixed layer thus lowering winter sea surface temperatures. Here we connect, for the first time, variability in the northward heat transport carried by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation to widespread sustained cooling of the subtropical North Atlantic, challenging the prevailing view that the ocean plays a passive role in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on monthly-to-seasonal timescales. Key Points The upper 2 km of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean cooled throughout 2010 Cooling driven by a 30% reduction in meridional heat transport AMOC contributes to heat content anomalies in the seasonal mixed layer Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of Bristol: Bristol Research Geophysical Research Letters 40 23 6202 6207 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Bristol: Bristol Research |
op_collection_id |
ftubristolcris |
language |
English |
topic |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Atlantic Ocean heat transport Atlantic subtropical gyre ocean heat content ocean observing system RAPID mooring array |
spellingShingle |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Atlantic Ocean heat transport Atlantic subtropical gyre ocean heat content ocean observing system RAPID mooring array Cunningham, Stuart A. Roberts, Christopher D. Frajka-Williams, Eleanor Johns, William E. Hobbs, Will Palmer, Matthew D. Rayner, Darren Smeed, David A. McCarthy, Gerard Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
topic_facet |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Atlantic Ocean heat transport Atlantic subtropical gyre ocean heat content ocean observing system RAPID mooring array |
description |
Observations show that the upper 2 km of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean cooled throughout 2010 and remained cold until at least December 2011. We show that these cold anomalies are partly driven by anomalous air-sea exchange during the cold winters of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 and, more surprisingly, by extreme interannual variability in the ocean's northward heat transport at 26.5°N. This cooling driven by the ocean's meridional heat transport affects deeper layers isolated from the atmosphere on annual timescales and water that is entrained into the winter mixed layer thus lowering winter sea surface temperatures. Here we connect, for the first time, variability in the northward heat transport carried by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation to widespread sustained cooling of the subtropical North Atlantic, challenging the prevailing view that the ocean plays a passive role in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system on monthly-to-seasonal timescales. Key Points The upper 2 km of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean cooled throughout 2010 Cooling driven by a 30% reduction in meridional heat transport AMOC contributes to heat content anomalies in the seasonal mixed layer |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cunningham, Stuart A. Roberts, Christopher D. Frajka-Williams, Eleanor Johns, William E. Hobbs, Will Palmer, Matthew D. Rayner, Darren Smeed, David A. McCarthy, Gerard |
author_facet |
Cunningham, Stuart A. Roberts, Christopher D. Frajka-Williams, Eleanor Johns, William E. Hobbs, Will Palmer, Matthew D. Rayner, Darren Smeed, David A. McCarthy, Gerard |
author_sort |
Cunningham, Stuart A. |
title |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
title_short |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
title_full |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
title_fullStr |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
title_sort |
atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1983/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/c00cf71f-07b6-44b1-84f8-f6fb06299a51 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84889971677&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Cunningham , S A , Roberts , C D , Frajka-Williams , E , Johns , W E , Hobbs , W , Palmer , M D , Rayner , D , Smeed , D A & McCarthy , G 2013 , ' Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean ' , Geophysical Research Letters , vol. 40 , no. 23 , pp. 6202-6207 . https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
40 |
container_issue |
23 |
container_start_page |
6202 |
op_container_end_page |
6207 |
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1789968938417782784 |