PL23A:
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: Modeling and Observations II


Session ID#: 36777

Session Description:
Through its associated heat, salt, and carbon transports, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) significantly influences the climate of the North Atlantic and surrounding areas and can even impact global climate through interactions with atmosphere on seasonal to multi-decadal timescales. Because the memory of the ocean vastly exceeds that of the atmosphere, AMOC is thought to represent the dynamical memory of the climate system, playing a major role in climate variations, hence in climate predictions, on these and even longer, i.e., centennial to millennial, timescales. Support for such a prominent role for AMOC on long time scales comes from coupled general circulation model simulations and proxy records. On shorter, i.e., intra-seasonal to decadal, timescales, measurements of transports, heat content, and other variables throughout the Atlantic Ocean have been instrumental in investigating the spatial structure, mechanisms, and impacts of AMOC variability, showing the importance of processes from the mesoscale to the basin scale. A synergy of knowledge gained from all these efforts will lead to a better understanding of AMOC.

We invite contributions from modeling and observational (both instrumental and proxy) studies, investigating AMOC variability and mechanisms as well as its role in climate predictions on various, e.g., decadal, timescales.

Primary Chair:  Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States
Co-chairs:  Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Ocean Science Systems, Texel, Netherlands, Rong Zhang, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Meric A Srokosz, National Oceanography Center, Soton, Southampton, United Kingdom
Moderators:  Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Ocean Science Systems, Texel, Netherlands, Rong Zhang, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Meric A Srokosz, National Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom
Student Paper Review Liaisons:  Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Ocean Science Systems, Texel, Netherlands and Rong Zhang, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Index Terms:

4255 Numerical modeling [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4262 Ocean observing systems [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4263 Ocean predictability and prediction [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4532 General circulation [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • OM - Ocean Modeling
  • PC - Past, Present and Future Climate

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

The Deep-Western-Boundary-Current at 53°N exiting the Labrador Sea: Vertical Structure and Decadal Variability (318407)
Martin Visbeck1,2, Patricia Vera Klara Handmann1, Jürgen Fischer1, Johannes Karstensen1, Rainer Zantopp1, Arne Biastoch1, Lavinia Patara1 and Claus W Boning1, (1)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (2)University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
An estimate of AMOC related transports at 47°N in the eastern North Atlantic inferred from PIES data (304357)
Hannah Nowitzki1,2, Monika Rhein1,2, Achim Roessler1,2 and Dagmar Kieke1,2, (1)University of Bremen, MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Bremen, Germany, (2)University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics, Bremen, Germany
Response of the Atlantic Ocean Circulation to Wind-Forcing, from Sea Surface Height and Bottom Pressure (311854)
Eleanor Frajka-Williams, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, Felix W Landerer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States and Tony Lee, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States
Observing bottom currents associated with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) using GRACE (324370)
Jordan Meyer, University of South Florida Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States and Don P Chambers, University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL, United States
Can variations in mixed layer depth explain variations in SST decorrelation timescales in the North Atlantic and North Pacific? (320857)
Martha W Buckley1, Laifang Li2, M Susan Lozier3 and Nicholas Foukal3, (1)George Mason University Fairfax, Fairfax, VA, United States, (2)Duke Univ-Earth & Ocean Sci, Durham, NC, United States, (3)Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
Relationship between changes in the AMOC, North Atlantic heat content and SST (308608)
Ben I Moat1, Bablu Sinha2, Simon A Josey3, Jon Robson4, Pablo Ortega5, Naomi P Holliday6, Gerard D McCarthy1 and Joel Hirschi7, (1)National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, (2)National Oceanography Centre, Marine System Modelling, Southampton, United Kingdom, (3)National Oceanography Center, Southampton, United Kingdom, (4)University of Reading, Meteorology, Reading, United Kingdom, (5)University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom, (6)NERC Natural Environment Research Council, Swindon, United Kingdom, (7)National Oceanography Centre, MSM, Southampton, United Kingdom
On the existence of a potential multidecadal AMOC-AMO-NAO feedback loop in MIROC (309899)
Ayako Yamamoto, Hiroaki Tatebe and Masami Nonaka, JAMSTEC Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kanagawa, Japan
Estimating Advective and Diffusive Fluxes of Heat and Freshwater in the Arctic Using a Novel Inverse Method in Thermohaline Coordinates (319504)
Neill Sutherland Mackay1, Chris Wilson1, Jan D Zika2 and Naomi P Holliday3, (1)National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, United Kingdom, (2)University of New South Wales, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Sydney, Australia, (3)NERC Natural Environment Research Council, Swindon, United Kingdom

See more of: Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger