Atlantic Overturning Circulation and Sea Surface Temperature Changes (IMAGE)
Caption
Oceans accross the world have warmed significantly since the beginning of industrialization in 1870/in the past 100 years -- this is due to global warming from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Since the 1950s, however, we see extreme warming of the waters close to the Northern part of the US Atlantic coast and, in stark contrast to the global trend, cooling of the Northern Atlantic close to Greenland. 'It is practically like a fingerprint of a weakening of the Atlantic overturning circulation,' says Levke Caesar from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, lead-author of paper now published in Nature. The Atlantic overturning circulation, also known as the Gulf Stream System, brings warm waters from the South to the North where it sinks into the deep and transports cold water from the North to the South. A weakening of this major ocean circulation can have widespread and potentially disruptive effects.
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Caesar/PIK
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