Atlantic 'Conveyor Belt' Not Slowing, NASA Study Finds

Science Daily ^ | Mar. 29, 2010

[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.

The Atlantic overturning circulation is a system of currents, including the Gulf Stream, that bring warm surface waters from the tropics northward into the North Atlantic. There, in the seas surrounding Greenland, the water cools, sinks to great depths and changes direction. What was once warm surface water heading north turns into cold deep water going south. This overturning is one part of the vast conveyor belt of ocean currents that move heat around the globe.

Without the heat carried by this circulation system, the climate around the North Atlantic -- in Europe, North America and North Africa -- would likely be much colder. Scientists hypothesize that rapid cooling 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age was triggered when freshwater from melting glaciers altered the ocean's salinity and slowed the overturning rate. That reduced the amount of heat carried northward as a result.

[huldah1776]

LOL thanks!

[fightinJAG]

Highly interesting.

They are looking, looking everywhere and can’t find anything that confirms big-time global warming, much less man-made global warning.

Eh.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping

[az_gila]

Hey, that “unexpected” word again...

The AGW computer model folks must have been in cahoots with the economic model folks...:^)

[SuziQ]

Hmmm. So that means that even after the NATURAL warming of the earth in the period from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, there still wasn’t substantial enough melting of glaciers to disrupt the Atlantic Conveyor? Good to know.

[SuziQ]

There was some warming in the last sunspot cycle, which typically lasts 11 years, but the new cycle was very slow getting started, and has had a lag time of about 4 years, during which the planet has been colder, on average, than normal. Makes for more severe winters, which we've had the last couple of years, and will likely have again, this year, since sunspot activity is still minimal.

Hubby and I think that if in fact, we are in a solar 'minimum', that it should be named the Hansen-Gore Minimum, to cement, for posterity, the cupidity of those two men.

[Paul Pierett]

Thanks for the ping.

The more I read what the media, NASA and the science magazines print, it appears they are looking for the Holy Grail in the Land of OZ. I tend to remember what a very verbal person said once, “I talk out loud to help my self think and keep myself on track.

Research is testing the waters and they now know one thing untrue of what they thought they were certain of, sea levels are not rising.

How much could they.

The Polar Ice caps have stabilized.

Glaciers are now in question. Some are melting, some growing and some stabilized.

These Scientists should look at the whole Picture, not their piece of the puzzle.

Thanks again for the ping.

Paul

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hubby and I think that if in fact, we are in a solar 'minimum', that it should be named the Hansen-Gore Minimum, to cement, for posterity, the cupidity of those two men.

Oh I love that statement!

[hadit2here]

“Scientists hypothesize that rapid cooling 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age was triggered when freshwater from melting glaciers altered the ocean’s salinity and slowed the overturning rate.”

Now I’m neither a rocket surgeon or brain scientist, so I’m probably rather confused during good times, but I’m trying to understand how there could be a “rapid cooling” at the “end of the last ice age”. I’ve always thought that it was cold during the ice ages with warming coming as they ended. Now these “scientists” say that there was a rapid cooling as it was warming up coming out of the ice age.

Can anyone ‘splain this in plain idiot terms or is this just a global warmist reporter moron’s (but I repeat myself) normal misrepresentation or misinterpretation of the facts of the story and trying to throw in some of his AGW talking points to try to counter the factual data he’s reporting on that doesn’t fit his agenda? (Sorta like putting his fingers in his ears and singing la-la-la-la loudly when anyone tries to show him factual data.)

I know there are “fluctuations” in the temperatures, but rising temps causing the ending of an ice age wouldn’t seem to me to be compatible with “rapid cooling” at the same time. Wouldn’t that bring back the ice age conditions that were just “ending”?

[ANGGAPO]

Where is AlGore when we need him?

[nmh]

They're probably nice people but allot of their audience believes what they say. He adds to the nutcase percentage. I'd rather see and hear a few less nuts, then encourage more of them and see someone profit by it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

but I’m trying to understand how there could be a “rapid cooling” at the “end of the last ice age”

Hmmmm....maybe it is like the chicken and egg problem....I don't have a good answer.

The Glaciers can't melt without the atmosphere warming up....and we have this ...FR thread:

The deep oceans drive the atmosphere

[fightinJAG]

Good one! And I wholeheartedly agree.

[SuziQ]

My hubby, SirKit, told me to point you to the info on the Younger Dryas stadial. He also mentioned the possibility of a comet strike, about that time, that warmed the glaciers, causing their melting. The water then flowed through what it now the St. Lawrence Seaway system, thus introducing fresh water to the Atlantic, across to where the Gulf Stream comes up the Eastern Coast and messing with the salinity of the water, thus changing the Atlantic Conveyor.

This comet is also conjectured as being the reason for the rapid die off of the Clovis peoples, and the cause of lots of little indentations in the ground throughout the Carolinas. There is another wikipedia article about the Younger Dryas Event, that mentions the Clovis people.

[hadit2here]

Thanks! I’ll be reading a bit more about that. Guess I’m just getting very cynical with reading all the AGW articles in mags that have “Science” in their title and really should call it “JunkScience” instead. Whenever I see the words “computer models” or “forcings”, I figure I’m reading fiction, not anything based upon hard facts. That one sentence in this article just struck my cynic nerve, while the rest of it seemed OK, even if it was reporting NASA climate research.

As far as the physical world goes, I still think that God has a cosmic computer with a game like SimLife on it and he amuses himself by occasionally pushing the “disaster” button to see what happens.

I’m still trying to decide whether the disaster of BO in the white hut is a result of one of his button pushes, or if we just brought that on ourselves. Guess I’m tending toward the latter...

#8^D