SAMS CLIMATE CHANGE STUDY : ATLANTIC OCEAN CURRENTS : NO CLEAR SIGNAL THAT THE AMOC IS WEAKENING AT THE SUB-POLAR LATITUTE

Marine scientists in Scotland have helped to develop the most comprehensive view yet of how large-scale north Atlantic currents that dictate our climate may be changing.

EXCERPT: Oceanographers across the world have long hypothesized that the AMOC could be weakening because of climate change, a view partly supported by a sub-tropical array of moorings known as RAPID, which has been in place since 2004. Because AMOC transports heat northwards from the tropics, a weakening, or complete collapse, of this ocean system could potentially plunge western Europe into freezing temperatures more commonly associated with higher latitudes such as Greenland and Siberia.

Project lead Dr. Neil Fraser of SAMS said SCOTIA had shown no clear signal that the AMOC was weakening at sub-polar latitude, but added this did not necessarily mean there was no overall weakening over a longer period of time. "The creation of the SCOTIA array and the methods we used to gather this data mean we are a step closer to answering one of the biggest questions in ocean science: is the AMOC weakening? It will allow us to effectively keep our finger on the pulse of the AMOC to give us the best chance of detecting a weakening or collapse."