An Atlantic current system that governs worldwide weather and climate has significantly weakened over the past two decades, a new study finds.
The study, published in Science Advances, found that a network of currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has slowed by about 10 percent since the early 2000s — a trend that, if it were to continue, could be “life altering” for people and ecosystems on every continent, said Shane Elipot, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science.
AMOC funnels warm surface water from the equator toward the Arctic, cooling some continents and warming others. Several studies in recent years have found that AMOC is slowing down as time goes on, but many are model-based analyses.
Elipot and fellow researchers aimed to close gaps in limited real-world data by measuring the current’s “pressure signal” on its east and west sides.
