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Published online 17 April 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070416-4
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Decades needed to tell whether ocean currents are slowing
Researchers pin down when we'll know the effects of climate on water flow.
Is the powerful Atlantic current that has a major role in ocean circulation slowing down? We won't know until we have collected more than 20 years' worth of continuous measurements, researchers said on Monday at the general assembly of the European Geoscience Union in Vienna, Austria.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), a key component of the climate system, is responsible for one-quarter of the global northward transport of heat.
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