March 29, 2024 00:17 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
NIA arrests key conspirator in Bengaluru cafe blast case | Actor Govinda returns to politics after 14 years of 'vanvas', joins Eknath Shinde camp | 'To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture': PM posts after 600 lawyers write to CJI | Comments on our electoral, legal processes completely unacceptable: India on US' remarks over Kejriwal arrest | Delhi High Court rejects PIL seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal as CM
Sea ice decline could weaken ocean currents of the North Atlantic
Image: Internet Wallpaper

Sea ice decline could weaken ocean currents of the North Atlantic

India Blooms News Service | | 02 Aug 2017, 08:58 pm
London, Aug 2 (IBNS): Arctic ice loss could lead to harsher winters and stormier weather in Europe because of its impact on Atlantic ocean currents, warn the authors of a new study led by the University of Southampton.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change and conducted in partnership with Yale University, found that a decline in sea ice cover caused by global warming could weaken the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – a large-scale ocean circulation system that affects climate.

AMOC is responsible for transporting heat from low to high latitudes. It has a lower limb of dense, cold water that flows south from the North Atlantic, and an upper limb of warm, salty water that flows north from the South Atlantic as part of the Gulf Stream.

The authors found that the system – which plays a major role in the climate of Atlantic rim countries, particularly those in Europe – could lose up to 50 per cent of its strength, leading to a cooling of the ocean surface in parts of the North Atlantic.

Lead author Dr Florian Sévellec, of the University of Southampton, said: “We suggest that Arctic ocean changes on a multi-decadal time scale, such as the decline in sea ice cover that we are currently experiencing, can efficiently weaken the large-scale ocean circulation of the North Atlantic, which is responsible for the oceanic transport of heat from the Equator to high latitudes.

“This in turn would have significant impacts on our daily weather, since the slow-down of this circulation, and its induced ocean surface cooling, has been shown in other studies to lead to an increase in storminess, to harsher winters, and to drier summers in Europe, for instance.”

Co-author Professor Alexey Fedorov, of Yale University, added: “Our study establishes a new mechanism that links the loss of sea ice and the AMOC. Potentially, this mechanism could lead to a reduction of between 30 and 50 per cent of the AMOC’s strength.”

In the short term, changes in the subpolar North Atlantic have the greatest impact on AMOC, the researchers found. But over the course of a few decades, it was changes in the Arctic that became most important to AMOC.

The researchers based their findings on a combination of comprehensive climate change model simulations and novel computations of the sensitivity of ocean circulation to fluctuations in temperature and salinity at the ocean’s surface over time.

The research was supported by grants from the Natural and Environmental Research Council UK, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.