Previous AMOC studies relied on sea surface temperature data. A CTD rosette device measures the ocean’s conductivity, temperature, and depth by collecting water samples at varying depths, making models more accurate than ever. Image Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Environment The World4. February 2025

Mighty Atlantic Current Surprises Scientists

A team of researchers has determined that currents in the Atlantic Ocean haven’t declined in the last 60 years, meaning that the melting ice caps have yet to disturb this vital body of water.

“Based on the results, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is more stable than we thought,” states Linus Vogt, a scientist at LOCEAN, Sorbonne Université and co-author of the study. “This might mean that the AMOC isn’t as close to a tipping point as previously suggested.”

The AMOC distributes heat, moisture, and nutrients across the ocean and plays a crucial role in regulating the Earth’s climate and weather. Fresh water from melting polar caps could disrupt the AMOC, even causing its collapse. A previous paper in 2018 assumed that the AMOC declined over the last 70 years because they based their findings on sea surface temperature measurements. But it turns out that sea surface temperature isn’t the best measurement for analysis. So, for this study, researchers used 24 climate-earth models produced by the World Climate Research Program. They also looked at air-sea heat fluxes or heat exchange from the ocean to the atmosphere. By completing two reanalysis data sets that extended back to the late 1950s, the authors reconstructed the AMOC, thus concluding that “a decline in AMOC over the last 60 years seems very unlikely.”

Source:
phys.org

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