AMOC—The Atlantic Ocean's conveyor belt. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) propels warm surface water from the q to high-latitude regions. There, the water encounters strong winds and cold air temperatures, which causes it to become colder and denser. This cold, dense water sinks into the deep ocean and then is conveyed ...
Some water does flow predictably between the gyres, but it's a slow process. The gyres are connected by the ocean's interstate system, often called the "Global Ocean Conveyor Belt." At a key crossroads in the North Atlantic, warm salty Gulf Stream surface waters move northward, where they cool rapidly in winter, becoming denser.
When it comes to regulating global climate, the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role. The constantly moving system of deep-water circulation, sometimes referred to as the Global Ocean Conveyor Belt, sends warm, salty Gulf Stream water to the North Atlantic where it releases heat to the atmosphere and warms Western Europe.
But today's rapidly changing climate could disrupt the AMOC. As anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions increase atmospheric temperatures, glaciers and ice sheets are melting at accelerated rates. Complex climate models show that if enough fresh meltwater floods the surface ocean in the North Atlantic, it could slow the conveyor belt, cooling ...
Two new studies in Nature Communications reveal details about currents driving the climate-regulating Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), or "global conveyor belt." A paper led by Jie Huang reveals that dense water driving the deep, southerly flow of AMOC forms in the center of the Greenland Gyre, an origin that has moved ...
Global thermohaline circulation is sometimes described as a great ocean conveyor belt (see "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt") - with warm, less dense waters flowing in one direction at the sea surface and cold, dense waters flowing in the opposite direction in the deep ocean.
In this way, the AMOC, which is part of a global "conveyor belt," helps regulate Earth's climate; and through its impact on climate, the AMOC affects patterns of drought, flooding, disease, and mass migrations. Scientists say an AMOC shutdown may have occurred previously during the transition out of the last ice age about 14,500 years ago.
Young-Oh Kwon arrived at WHOI in 2006 with a strong background in climate modeling, and a particular interest in natural variability of the ocean. It was a perfect blend for studying the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)—a conveyor belt of currents that move warmer waters north and cooler waters south in the Atlantic Ocean.
The cold waters (blue arrows) sink and feeds into the lower limb of a global system of currents often described as the Great Ocean Conveyor. To replace the down-flowing water, warm surface waters (red arrows) from the tropics are pulled northward along the Conveyor's upper limb.
Labrador Sea Water is a subpolar water mass shaped by air-sea exchanges in the North Atlantic. It is a major contributor to the deep water of the Atlantic, and changes of conditions in its formation area can be read several years later at mid-depths in the subtropics. Mapping these changes through time is helping us to understand the causes of ...
