The southern overturn circulation of the Atlantic (AMOC), a key system in the regulation of the medium planet climate, could resist the future global warming and Avoid your collapse, According to a new study published in ‘Nature’.
In recent years, this system of currents has become one of the issues of greater concern And controversy among climatic scientists: some recent studies have pointed out that the current slows down and approaches its collapse, influenced by global warming, with disastrous implications for the climate. But other recent studies, such as the one published Wednesday, suggest that AMOC could be able to resist without collapsing.
Specifically, the findings indicate that, although it is likely that The circulation weakens In global warming scenarios, other oceanic processes could avoid collapse.
The AMOC flows throughout the Atlantic and includes the Gulf current. Is comparable to a giant conveyor belt that moves warm and superficial waters from Florida to the north. There they cool and interact with the fresh water of the thaw of Greenland and the rains, sinking. Once in the depths, the mass of water flows back to Ecuador, where the cycle is repeated. But global warming can stop this cycle. The debate is in itself the system will collapse completely or not.
Slowdown
To answer the question, Jonathan Baker and his colleagues used 34 climatic models of the latest generation to evaluate the AMOC response to the concentrations of greenhouse gases and the freshwater levels of the North Atlantic. Thus they discovered that the system of currents is climate change resistant And he didn’t collapse.
Behind is the outcrop of the deep waters of the North Atlantic driven by the winds In the Antarctic Ocean, that holds the circulation and avoids its collapse. The authors point out that this outcrop must be balanced with a descending outcrop in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans and that the AMOC can only collapse if a Pacific Return circulation is developed (PMOC). While this circulation is developed in all the models they considered, they show that it is too weak to balance the outcrop of the southern ocean, which indicates that the collapse of the AMOC is unlikely in this century.
“It’s good news,” Jonathan Bamber, director of the Bristol Gracia Center of the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), says to SMC. But he clarifies: «Although they do not find evidence of a disconnection or collapse of the AMOC, They confirm a weakening In all cases and this, by itself, should be a source of concern. Since the AMOC is responsible for much of the transport of ocean heat to the poles, changes in their strength have a huge impact on the climate of northwest Europe and worldwide «.
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