Do Southern Hemisphere Winds Cause Significant AMOC Variability?

Since 1995 many papers have suggested that changes in Southern Hemisphere winds affect the strength of AMOC in the North Atlantic. However, recent high resolution ocean simulations show that the eddy MOC in the Southern Ocean compensates to some degree changes in the mean MOC due to zonal wind variability. The remaining mean MOC changes are balanced in the Atlantic mainly south of 20 N. Consequently, Southern Hemisphere wind changes cause very little variability in the North Atlantic MOC maximum near 40 N compared to variability caused by more local forcing changes.