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| Titel |
Role of the Antilles Current in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation variability at 26.5N |
| VerfasserIn |
Aurelie Duchez, Eleanor Frajka-Williams, Lisa Holton, Joel Hirschi, Harry Bryden |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250091433
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-5726.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Recent observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at 26.5 N
have shown strong variations of the AMOC on interannual time scales as well as the
suggestion of a longer term decline of the circulation. Here, we relate the interannual
variations in the strength of the AMOC to the Antilles Current (AC), a western-intensified
boundary current east of the Bahamas.
Using 8.5 years of moored observations from the RAPID array at 26.5°N as well as
output from a high resolution ocean simulation (NEMO 1/12°), we investigate the
interannual variability in the AC as well as the spatial structure in density and wind stress curl
(WSC) east of the Bahamas.
Comparing the WSC forcing to the AC transport, we find that on interannual time scales,
the zonally integrated WSC leads the AC by 2.5 years in the observations. Separating the
upper mid-ocean transport into the northward flowing AC and southward flowing gyre
east of the AC, we are able to attribute the downturn of the MOC in 2009/2010
as associated with a weakening of the AC rather than with the gyre recirculation. |
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