WE live on one planet and all its oceans are connected with meridional overturning circulation (MOC) facilitating the mixing of waters across the globe.
In the apocalyptic movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ the melting of the polar icecaps disrupts a component of this system, the North Atlantic current, and so North America freezes over with US citizens pouring into Mexico to escape the freezing conditions.
New findings, published late last week in the journal Nature don’t dispute MOC, but suggest that the southern flow of deep water from Greenland may not follow as neat a path as assumed – including by the scientist in the Hollywood blockbuster. In particular rather than the deep water moving as a conveyor belt – yes that is the term that had been used to describe the flow of water southwards – it may be more diffuse.
One of the authors of the new paper in Nature, Amy Bower, has described it as “A swath in the wide-open, turbulent interior of the North Atlantic” rather than a conveyor belt.
In the media release accompanying the publication of the findings, another author Susan Lozier, suggests this means it is going to be more difficult to measure climate signals in the deep ocean.
[Read more…] about Flow of Deep Water South from Greenland More ‘Diffuse’ than Previously Thought
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
