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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2013
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ftuhipublicatio:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/ab597d05-152f-451c-a25d-9a7f1617ca49 2024-06-23T07:54:58+00:00 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 2013-12-11 application/pdf https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/ab597d05-152f-451c-a25d-9a7f1617ca49 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 https://pureadmin.uhi.ac.uk/ws/files/1899491/grl51183_published.pdf eng eng https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/ab597d05-152f-451c-a25d-9a7f1617ca49 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 article 2013 ftuhipublicatio https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 2024-06-10T23:47:56Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of the Highlands and Islands: Research Database of UHI Geophysical Research Letters 40 23 6202 6207 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of the Highlands and Islands: Research Database of UHI |
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ftuhipublicatio |
language |
English |
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. |
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 |
spellingShingle |
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 |
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://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/ab597d05-152f-451c-a25d-9a7f1617ca49 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058464 https://pureadmin.uhi.ac.uk/ws/files/1899491/grl51183_published.pdf |
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_relation |
https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/ab597d05-152f-451c-a25d-9a7f1617ca49 |
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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1802647319345102848 |