A Decade after The Day After Tomorrow: Our Current Understanding of the Ocean's Overturning Circulation

In 1800 Count Rumford ascertained the ocean's meridional overturning circulation from a single profile of ocean temperature constructed with the use of a rope, a wooden bucket and a rudimentary thermometer. Over two centuries later, data from floats, gliders and moorings deployed across the North Atlantic has transformed our understanding of the temporal and spatial variability of the meridional overturning: the component of the climate system responsible for sequestering heat and anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. In this talk I will review our current understanding of the overturning circulation with a particular focus on what we currently do and don't understand about the mechanisms controlling its temporal change.