PC21A:
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: An Ongoing Challenge I

Session ID#: 92878

Session Description:
Due to the importance of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in the transport and storage of heat, freshwater, carbon, and nutrients, it is crucial to observe and model the AMOC. A coordinated contribution to recent AMOC research has been through programs such as USAMOC, RAPID and OSNAP, as well as other international projects and transport arrays. Consequently, significant progress has been made in understanding the AMOC’s role in the climate system through its interactions with the atmosphere on seasonal to multi-decadal time scales. Nevertheless, challenges remain with many unresolved questions, including: spatial coherency of AMOC and associated time scales; and robust driving mechanisms of AMOC variability. Better syntheses of observations, paleo proxies, and models are required to examine AMOC over longer time scales, and to address how knowledge of the AMOC could enhance climate predictions. Improved integration of physical and biogeochemical observations is needed to understand the role of AMOC in carbon and nutrient budgets. We invite contributions from observational (instrumental or proxy) and modelling studies of the AMOC and its impacts on climate on all time scales. The sunsetting of the USAMOC program provides a great opportunity to synthesize the knowledge gained so far.
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • OM - Ocean Modeling
  • PS - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller
Index Terms:
Primary Chair:  Meric A Srokosz, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom
Co-chairs:  Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research & Utrecht University, Ocean Science Systems, Texel, Netherlands, Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, CO, United States and Kathleen A Donohue, Univ Rhode Island, Narragansett, United States
Primary Liaison:  Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, CO, United States
Moderators:  Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, CO, United States and Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, Netherlands
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Kathleen A Donohue, Univ Rhode Island, Narragansett, United States

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Volume, heat and freshwater transports across the OSNAP array: 2014-2018 (652323)
Feili Li, Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Atlanta, GA, United States and The OSNAP Observations Team
Moored observations of the Iceland-Scotland Overflow plume along the eastern flank of the Reykjanes Ridge (644205)
William E Johns1, Adam Houk2, Manish Devana3 and Sijia Zou2, (1)Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States, (2)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States, (3)Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Ocean Sciences, Miami, United States
Redrawing the Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water Pathways in the North Atlantic (648860)
Sijia Zou1, Amy S Bower2, Heather H Furey2, Susan Lozier3 and Xiaobiao Xu4, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States, (2)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (3)Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States, (4)Florida State University, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Tallahassee, FL, United States
Evidence supporting a new overflow path feeding the meridional overturning circulation through the Faroe Bank Channel (645544)
Leon Chafik1, Hjálmar Hátún2, Bogi Hansen2, Joakim Kjellsson3, Karin Margretha Husgard Larsen2 and H. Thomas Rossby4, (1)Stockholm University, Department of Meteorology, Stockholm, Sweden, (2)Faroe Marine Research Institute, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, (3)GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany, (4)University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, United States
Rapid eddy-mediated export of waters formed by boundary convection in the Irminger Sea (652753)
Isabela Alexander-Astiz Le Bras1, Fiammetta Straneo1, James Holte1, Femke de Jong2 and N. Penny Holliday3, (1)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, (2)Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, Netherlands, (3)National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom
The Dynamical Proxy Potential of the OSNAP Array (644099)
Nora Loose1,2, Patrick Heimbach1, Helen Pillar3 and Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu4, (1)University of Texas at Austin, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Austin, TX, United States, (2)Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway, (3)University of Texas at Austin, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Austin, United States, (4)University of Bergen and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
Reconstructing Components of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Over the Last 300 Years Using Multiple High Resolution Geochemical Proxies Measured in Arctica Islandica Shells (643207)
Nina Whitney1, Alan D Wanamaker2, Beverly J Johnson3, Caroline Ummenhofer4, Shelly Griffin1, Erin E Lower1, Karl J Kreutz5, Philip T. Dostie3, Katherine Luzier1 and Douglas Introne6, (1)Iowa State University, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Ames, IA, United States, (2)Iowa State University, Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Ames, United States, (3)Bates College, Earth and Climate Science, Lewiston, United States, (4)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States, (5)University of Maine, Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences, Orono, ME, United States, (6)University of Maine, Climate Change Institute, Orono, ME, United States
Stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: A Review and Synthesis (652270)
Wilbert Weijer, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Wei Cheng, Univ of Washington, Seattle, United States, Sybren S Drijfhout, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands, Alexey V Fedorov, Yale University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, New Haven, CT, United States, Aixue Hu, NCAR, Boulder, United States, Laura C Jackson, UK Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom, Wei Liu, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States, Elaine McDonagh, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, Jennifer Mecking, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom and Jiaxu Zhang, University of Washington, CICOES, Seattle, United States