PC23A:
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: An Ongoing Challenge II

Session ID#: 92882

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:  Kathleen A Donohue, Univ Rhode Island, Narragansett, United States, Femke de Jong, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research & Utrecht University, Ocean Science Systems, Texel, Netherlands and Gokhan Danabasoglu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, CO, United States
Primary Liaison:  Meric A Srokosz, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom
Moderators:  Meric A Srokosz, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom and Kathleen A Donohue, Univ Rhode Island, Narragansett, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Kathleen A Donohue, Univ Rhode Island, Narragansett, United States

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Simplifying the Dynamics of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26°N (646702)
Emma Worthington, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, United States, Robert Marsh, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, Jennifer Mecking, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, Sybren S Drijfhout, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands, David Smeed, National Oceanography Center, Soton, Southampton, United Kingdom, Ben I Moat, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom and Gerard McCarthy, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland
How does coastline shape influence meridional overturning and ocean heat transport? (644149)
Sarah Ragen, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, United States, Kyle Armour, University of Washington, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences and School of Oceanography, Seattle, United States, Andrew Shao, University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC, Canada, Elizabeth Maroon, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States and LuAnne Thompson, University of Washington, Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States
The Strengthening of the Atlantic Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation Caused by Enhanced Indian Ocean Warming (649185)
Alexey V Fedorov, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States and Shineng Hu, Duke University, Division of Earth and Climate Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, NC, United States
The role of the Indo-Pacific Ocean in mediating the transient response of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (646815)
Shantong Sun, California Institute of Technology, Environmental Science and Engineering, Pasadena, CA, United States, Andrew F Thompson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States and Ian Eisenman, University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, United States
Robust and Non-robust Aspects of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Variability and Mechanisms in the Community Earth System Model (637417)
Gokhan Danabasoglu, Laura Landrum, Stephen G Yeager and Peter R Gent, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States
The key role of submesoscale advection in the formation of Labrador Sea water. (652702)
Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Atlanta, GA, United States, Filippos Tagklis, Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, Earth and Atmospheric science, Atlanta, United States, Takamitsu Ito, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States and Renato M Castelao, University of Georgia, Marine Sciences, Athens, United States
Deep Water Formation and Meridional Overturning Circulation in High-Resolution Simulations of the Subpolar North Atlantic (650814)
Claus W Boning1, Arne Biastoch2, Klaus Getzlaff2, Patrick Wagner2, Siren Ruehs2 and Markus Scheinert2, (1)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, FB1 Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics, Kiel, Germany, (2)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Historical AMOC in an Eddy-resolving CESM2 Simulation (646437)
Stephen G Yeager1,2, Gokhan Danabasoglu2,3, Ping Chang4,5, Alper Altuntas1,2, Frank Bryan6, Frederic S Castruccio6,7, Who M Kim7, Elizabeth Maroon1,8, Justin Small1,2, Lixin Wu5,9 and Shaoqing Zhang2,10, (1)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)International Laboratory for High-Resolution Earth System Prediction (iHESP), College Station, TX, United States, (3)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Texas A&M University, Department of Oceanography, College Station, United States, (5)International Laboratory for High-Resolution Earth System Prediction (iHESP), College Station, United States, (6)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Boulder, United States, (7)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, United States, (8)University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (9)Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China, (10)Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China