Ocean Science
Ocean Science
OS
Articles | Volume 17, issue 1
Articles | Volume 17, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-285-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-285-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 17, issue 1
Research article
 | 
15 Feb 2021
Research article |  | 15 Feb 2021

A 30-year reconstruction of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation shows no decline

Emma L. Worthington, Ben I. Moat, David A. Smeed, Jennifer V. Mecking, Robert Marsh, and Gerard D. McCarthy

Data sets

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Observed by the RAPID-MOCHA- WBTS (RAPID-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heat- flux Array-Western Boundary Time Series) Array at 26N from 2004 to 2017 D. Smeed, G. McCarthy, D. Rayner, B. I. Moat, W. E. Johns, M. O. Baringer, and C. S. Meinen https://doi.org/10.5285/5ACFD143-1104-7B58-E053-6C86ABC0D94B

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Observed by the RAPID-MOCHA- WBTS (RAPID-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heat- flux Array-Western Boundary Time Series) Array at 26N from 2004 to 2018 D. Smeed, B. I. Moat, D. Rayner, W. E. Johns, M. O. Baringer, D. L. Volkov, and E. Frajka-Williams https://doi.org/10.5285/8CD7E7BB-9A20-05D8-E053-6C86ABC012C2

NCEI Standard Product: World Ocean Database (WOD) T. P. Boyer, J. I. Antonov, O. K. Baranova, C. Coleman, H. E. Garcia, A. Grodsky, D. R. Johnson, R. Locarnini, R. A. Mishonov, T. O'Brien, ,C. Paver, J. Reagan, D. Seidov, I. V. Smolyar, and M. Zweng https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOD/pr_wod.html

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Short summary
The RAPID array has observed the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) since 2004, but the AMOC was directly calculated only five times from 1957–2004. Here we create a statistical regression model from RAPID data, relating AMOC changes to density changes within the different water masses at 26°  N, and apply it to historical hydrographic data. The resulting 1981–2016 record shows that the AMOC from 2008–2012 was its weakest since the mid-1980s, but it shows no overall decline.
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