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Sluggish Atlantic circulation could cause global temperatures to surge

The circulation system of the North Atlantic Ocean has weakened and is predicted to weaken further in the coming decades. An analysis suggests that this decline could lead to accelerated global surface warming.
  1. Gerard D. McCarthy

    1. Gerard D. McCarthy is at the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.

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  2. Peter W. Thorne

    1. Peter W. Thorne is at the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS), Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.

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Global surface temperatures rose steadily from 1975 to 1998, but this growth then slowed somewhat for about 15 years — an event that gained popular attention1 as a ‘hiatus’. Since then, we have experienced the four warmest years on record, which has served to dampen popular interest in the event. However, because climate change is a complex response to slowly varying external drivers, it is important to fully understand past climate behaviour and the underlying causes. In a paper in Nature, Chen and Tung2 report that the system of ocean currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) can explain changes in rates of global surface warming. Rather than the conventional picture of a vigorous AMOC associated with elevated surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, the authors emphasize the role of the AMOC in taking heat from the surface and storing it in the deep ocean.

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Nature 559, 340-341 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05712-x

References

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