Value of the RAPID array for climate predictions (VALOR)

Lead Research Organisation: NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
Department Name: Science and Technology

Abstract

Identical to summary given in main VALOR document.
 
Description The main goal of VALOR was to better understand the variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Due to the large amount of heat that the AMOC transports from low latitudes to the North Atlantic region, this circulation is a key contributor to Europe's climate. Understanding what drives the variability of the AMOC therefore also means gaining a better understanding of the climate in the North Atlantic region. The main findings of our research on that project were: (I) We found that the AMOC is likely to undergo very large variations on sub daily to inter-daily timescales due to the passage of near inertial waves. (II) We have shown that the marked AMOC decrease which was observed in the real Atlantic in 2009/2010 had previous analogues. (III) For the first time we provided an estimate of the amplitude of the chaotic variability of the AMOC (i.e. variability which cannot directly be traced back to either local atmospheric changes or to remote changes in deep water formation).
Exploitation Route Our findings help to place observations made in the framework of the RAPID project (AMOC observations at 26.5N in the real Atlantic) into a broader spatial and temporal context.
Sectors Education

Environment

URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiwKr8jedJc