Observations in the Arctic Ocean Do Not Confirm Weakening of Thermohaline Circulation in the North Atlantic

摘要

The authors of recent publications have reported about weakening of thermohaline circulation and its meridional component (meridional overturning circulation) in the North Atlantic. On the basis of satellite altimetry, the authors of [1] found a decrease in geo-strophic transport in the North Atlantic Subpolar gyre in the 1990s, while the authors of [2] reported about a 20% decrease of the overflow of deep water into the North Atlantic through the Faeroe-Shetland channel over the past 50 years. The calculations of the authors of [3] based on the data of observations over the 25° N section showed a 30% decrease in the overturning circulation from 1957 to 2004. These and other publications have become the basis for scientific popular papers about weakening of oceanic heat transfer to the coasts of northern Europe and possible climate cooling in this region as a result of global warming. However, the results of other studies contradict the conclusions about weakening of thermohaline circulation and oceanic heat transport to high latitudes. These results point to the opposite development of the circulation and transport processes. In particular, the observation data and model calculations in [6] point to an increase in salinity and northward transport in the southeastern part of the subpolar gyre beginning from 1995.