TY - JOUR
T1 - Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic
AU - Holliday, N. Penny
AU - Bersch, Manfred
AU - Berx, Barbara
AU - Chafik, Léon
AU - Cunningham, Stuart
AU - Florindo-López, Cristian
AU - Hátún, Hjálmar
AU - Johns, William
AU - Josey, Simon A.
AU - Larsen, Karin Margretha H.
AU - Mulet, Sandrine
AU - Oltmanns, Marilena
AU - Reverdin, Gilles
AU - Rossby, Tom
AU - Thierry, Virginie
AU - Valdimarsson, Hedinn
AU - Yashayaev, Igor
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slowdown. We show that the eastern subpolar North Atlantic underwent extreme freshening during 2012 to 2016, with a magnitude never seen before in 120 years of measurements. The cause was unusual winter wind patterns driving major changes in ocean circulation, including slowing of the North Atlantic Current and diversion of Arctic freshwater from the western boundary into the eastern basins. We find that wind-driven routing of Arctic-origin freshwater intimately links conditions on the North West Atlantic shelf and slope region with the eastern subpolar basins. This reveals the importance of atmospheric forcing of intra-basin circulation in determining the salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic.
AB - The Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation is important to the climate system because it carries heat and carbon northward, and from the surface to the deep ocean. The high salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic is a prerequisite for overturning circulation, and strong freshening could herald a slowdown. We show that the eastern subpolar North Atlantic underwent extreme freshening during 2012 to 2016, with a magnitude never seen before in 120 years of measurements. The cause was unusual winter wind patterns driving major changes in ocean circulation, including slowing of the North Atlantic Current and diversion of Arctic freshwater from the western boundary into the eastern basins. We find that wind-driven routing of Arctic-origin freshwater intimately links conditions on the North West Atlantic shelf and slope region with the eastern subpolar basins. This reveals the importance of atmospheric forcing of intra-basin circulation in determining the salinity of the subpolar North Atlantic.
KW - North Atlantic
KW - climate system
KW - freshwater
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c578a4e0-e646-3000-9b62-6f501043e698/
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-14474-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 31996687
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 585
ER -
