A sea change in our view of overturning in the subpolar North Atlantic

To provide an observational basis for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections of a slowing Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the 21st century, the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) observing system was launched in the summer of 2014. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Lozier, MS, Li, F, Bacon, S, Johnson, HL, Marshall, DP, al., E
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019
Subjects:
Iceland
Labrador Sea
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau6592
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c00a4b47-78c9-4daa-9140-84cd0a6a3df4
Description
Summary:To provide an observational basis for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections of a slowing Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the 21st century, the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) observing system was launched in the summer of 2014. The first 21-month record reveals a highly variable overturning circulation responsible for the majority of the heat and freshwater transport across the OSNAP line. In a departure from the prevailing view that changes in deep water formation in the Labrador Sea dominate MOC variability, these results suggest that the conversion of warm, salty, shallow Atlantic waters into colder, fresher, deep waters that move southward in the Irminger and Iceland basins is largely responsible for overturning and its variability in the subpolar basin.

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