There are some Good Diagrams at the website....I will include the first one here:
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The AMOC, bringing warmth to Europe and Scandinavia since the start of the Holocene.
Posted on 08/22/2010 8:15:56 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
There are some Good Diagrams at the website....I will include the first one here:
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The AMOC, bringing warmth to Europe and Scandinavia since the start of the Holocene.
Can in situ floats and satellite altimeters detect long-term changes in Atlantic Ocean overturning?
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 37, L06602, 5 PP., 2010
doi:10.1029/2010GL042372
Josh K. Willis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Global warming has been predicted to slow the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), resulting in significant regional climate impacts across the North Atlantic and beyond. Here, satellite observations of sea surface height (SSH) along with temperature, salinity and velocity from profiling floats are used to estimate changes in the northward-flowing, upper limb of the AMOC at latitudes around 41°N. The 2004 through 2006 mean overturning is found to be 15.5 ± 2.4 Sv (106 m3/s) with somewhat smaller seasonal and interannual variability than at lower latitudes. There is no significant trend in overturning strength between 2002 and 2009. Altimeter data, however, suggest an increase of 2.6 Sv since 1993, consistent with North Atlantic warming during this same period. Despite significant seasonal to interannual fluctuations, these observations demonstrate that substantial slowing of the AMOC did not occur during the past 7 years and is unlikely to have occurred in the past 2 decades.
Received 3 January 2010; accepted 18 February 2010; published 25 March 2010.
Citation: (2010), Can in situ floats and satellite altimeters detect long-term changes in Atlantic Ocean overturning?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L06602, doi:10.1029/2010GL042372.
ping
I wonder how long this scientist’s contract at JPL will be operative after publishing this data?
It is surely not the party line.
Or that the sun will no longer heat tropical areas to a greater extent than polar ones. Or that warm water will suddenly become denser than cold water.
Atlantic 'Conveyor Belt' Not Slowing, NASA Study Finds
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Posted on Sun 22 Aug 2010 08:36:41 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Illustration depicting the overturning circulation of the global ocean. Throughout the Atlantic Ocean, the circulation carries warm waters (red arrows) northward near the surface and cold deep waters (blue arrows) southward. (Credit: NASA/JPL)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2010) — New NASA measurements of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, part of the global ocean conveyor belt that helps regulate climate around the North Atlantic, show no significant slowing over the past 15 years. The data suggest the circulation may have even sped up slightly in the recent past.
The findings are the result of a new monitoring technique, developed by oceanographer Josh Willis of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using measurements from ocean-observing satellites and profiling floats. The findings are reported in the March 25 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
Thanks
The deep oceans drive the atmosphere
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JoNova ^ | June 12th, 2010 | William Kininmonth Guest post
Posted on Fri 11 Jun 2010 11:07:22 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Ever wondered how the whole planet could suddenly “get warmer” during an El Nino, and then suddenly cool again? William Kininmonth has the answer. As I read his words I’m picturing a major pool of stored “coldness” (bear with me, I know cold is just a lack of heat) which is periodically unleashed on the surface temperatures. The vast deep ocean abyss is filled with salty and near freezing water. In years where this colder pool is kept in place we have El Ninos, and on years when the colder water rises and mixes up near the surface we have La Ninas. The satellites recording temperatures at the surface of the ocean are picking up the warmth (or lack of) on this top-most layer. That’s why it can be bitterly cold for land thermometers but at the same time the satellites are recording a higher world average temperature, due to the massive area of the Pacific.
In other words, just as you’d expect, the actual temperature of the whole planetary mass is not rising and falling within months, instead, at times the oceans swallow the heat on the surface and give up some “coldness”. At other times, the cold stays buried deep down and the heat can collect and loll about on the surface.
William Kininmonth was chief of Australia’s National Climate Centre at the Bureau of Meteorology from 1986 to 1998. Below, he describes how a vast pool of cold water filled the deep ocean abyss over 30 million years, and why this water and the currents that shift it have a major impact our climate. The so-called Bottom Layer is not just pockets or pools, it forms around Antarctica, then sinks and flows along the bottom all the way across the equator and into the Northern Hemisphere. Bear in mind the average depth of the ocean is around 4 kilometers, and yet almost all the water below a depth of 1000 m is around 4°C or colder. The Antarctic Bottom Water itself is close to 0°C. The equivalent heat energy of the entire atmosphere is stored in just the top few meters of water. It gives us all some perspective on the relative importance of different factors affecting the climate. His thoughts are in response to the latest debate essay from Dr Andrew Glikson, so the figures 1 and 2 come from that article.
Kininmonth points out that small changes in the rate of the Thermohaline Circulation (also known as the Ocean’s Conveyor Belt) makes a huge difference to all corners of the globe, and that the climate models make large assumptions about the flow of energy. Since the cold bottom layer was created by a kind of “Antarctic Refridgerator” (set into play by the circumpolar current) this colossal cold pool of water will presumably hang around until the continents shift. That’s quite a few election cycles.
Dr. Hansen's contract at NASA needs to be terminated ...along with Dr. Michael Mann at Penn State.
Gore just needs a good hanging!
You said “global warming.” LOL...
:-)
Can we say that this was “unexpected”?
Wait'll Bill Nye gets ahold of him!
ping.
ping
Thanks for the ping!
ping!
Thanks for keeping us up to speed!
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