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Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean
Citation
Cunningham, SA and Roberts, CD and Frajka-Williams, E and Johns, WE and Hobbs, WR and Palmer, MD and Rayner, D and Smeed, DA and McCarthy, G, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown cooled the subtropical ocean, Geophysical Research Letters, 40, (23) pp. 6202-6207. ISSN 0094-8276 (2013) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2013 The Authors
Abstract
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.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | North Atlantic; ocean observation; ocean-atmosphere interaction |
Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
Research Group: | Oceanography |
Research Field: | Physical oceanography |
Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
Objective Field: | Global effects of climate change (excl. Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the South Pacific) (excl. social impacts) |
UTAS Author: | Hobbs, WR (Dr Will Hobbs) |
ID Code: | 88556 |
Year Published: | 2013 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 51 |
Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
Deposited On: | 2014-02-06 |
Last Modified: | 2017-10-31 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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