Articles | Volume 22, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1195-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1195-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
20 Apr 2026
Research article |
| 20 Apr 2026
| 20 Apr 2026
Nordic overturning increases as AMOC weakens in response to global warming
Sasha Roewer
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
RD1 – Earth System Analysis, Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
current address: IMPRS-ESM, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Lukas Fiedler
RD1 – Earth System Analysis, Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
current address: IMPRS-ESM, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
current address: Earth and Society Research Hub (ESRAH), University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Marius Årthun
Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
Willem Huiskamp
RD1 – Earth System Analysis, Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
Stefan Rahmstorf
RD1 – Earth System Analysis, Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-587, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-587, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
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The third State of Wildfires report examines extreme wildfire events from 2025 to early 2026. It analyses key regional events in Midwestern Canadian Shield Forests, Northwest Iberia, and Chilean Temperate Forests and Matorral, assessing their impacts, drivers, and attributing them to climate change. Climate change greatly increased the likelihood of these fires, and without strong mitigation, such events will become more frequent.
Anna Höse, Moritz Kreuzer, Willem Huiskamp, Stefan Petri, and Georg Feulner
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 1025–1059, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-1025-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-1025-2026, 2026
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This research investigates the interactions between the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which are both recognized as critical climate tipping elements in the Earth system. We conduct a computer simulation with artificial freshwater input in the North Atlantic to collapse the AMOC for 1500 years. Our findings show no destabilization of the Antarctic Ice Sheet induced by changes in the Southern Ocean during this period.
Niki Lohmann, David Strahl, Annika Högner, Willem Huiskamp, Matthias Boehm, and Nico Wunderling
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 33, 313–334, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-33-313-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-33-313-2026, 2026
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Causal inference methods could be used to study the interaction of climate tipping elements, which may degrade abruptly due to climate change. We compare three of these methods to determine their reliability and apply two of them to the Arctic summer sea ice and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Our results imply that a weaker AMOC would stabilize Arctic summer sea ice, and that a loss of Arctic summer sea ice would likely stabilize the AMOC in the short term.
Stefan Rahmstorf and Levke Caesar
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2110, 2026
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The Atlantic Ocean circulation has a big impact on climate, not only on European temperatures. There has been a longstanding concern that it could slow down or even shut down in response to global warming. While climate models predict that, it is debated whether a slowing is already underway. Here we discuss the available data and conclude that it is very likely that indeed the circulation is already slowing down.
Jakob Dörr, Carlo Mans, Marius Årthun, Kristofer Döös, Dafydd Gwyn Evans, and Yanchun He
Ocean Sci., 22, 565–585, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-565-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-565-2026, 2026
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The Arctic Ocean plays a key role in the global ocean circulation by producing dense waters that feed the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). We use a high-resolution ocean simulation to investigate the pathways and mechanisms through which these dense waters are formed in the Arctic. Our results show that surface cooling in the Barents Sea dominates the dense water production, but that internal mixing plays a role at high densities.
Douglas I. Kelley, Chantelle Burton, Francesca Di Giuseppe, Matthew W. Jones, Maria L. F. Barbosa, Esther Brambleby, Joe R. McNorton, Zhongwei Liu, Anna S. I. Bradley, Katie Blackford, Eleanor Burke, Andrew Ciavarella, Enza Di Tomaso, Jonathan Eden, Igor José M. Ferreira, Lukas Fiedler, Andrew J. Hartley, Theodore R. Keeping, Seppe Lampe, Anna Lombardi, Guilherme Mataveli, Yuquan Qu, Patrícia S. Silva, Fiona R. Spuler, Carmen B. Steinmann, Miguel Ángel Torres-Vázquez, Renata Veiga, Dave van Wees, Jakob B. Wessel, Emily Wright, Bibiana Bilbao, Mathieu Bourbonnais, Cong Gao, Carlos M. Di Bella, Kebonye Dintwe, Victoria M. Donovan, Sarah Harris, Elena A. Kukavskaya, Aya Brigitte N'Dri, Cristina Santín, Galia Selaya, Johan Sjöström, John T. Abatzoglou, Niels Andela, Rachel Carmenta, Emilio Chuvieco, Louis Giglio, Douglas S. Hamilton, Stijn Hantson, Sarah Meier, Mark Parrington, Mojtaba Sadegh, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz, Fernando Sedano, Marco Turco, Guido R. van der Werf, Sander Veraverbeke, Liana O. Anderson, Hamish Clarke, Paulo M. Fernandes, and Crystal A. Kolden
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 5377–5488, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-5377-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-5377-2025, 2025
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The second State of Wildfires report examines extreme wildfire events from 2024 to early 2025. It analyses key regional events in Southern California, Northeast Amazonia, Pantanal–Chiquitano, and the Congo Basin, assessing their drivers and predictability and attributing them to climate change and land use. Seasonal outlooks and decadal projections are provided. Climate change greatly increased the likelihood of these fires, and without strong mitigation, such events will become more frequent.
Ricarda Winkelmann, Donovan P. Dennis, Jonathan F. Donges, Sina Loriani, Ann Kristin Klose, Jesse F. Abrams, Jorge Alvarez-Solas, Torsten Albrecht, David Armstrong McKay, Sebastian Bathiany, Javier Blasco Navarro, Victor Brovkin, Eleanor Burke, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Reik V. Donner, Markus Drüke, Goran Georgievski, Heiko Goelzer, Anna B. Harper, Gabriele Hegerl, Marina Hirota, Aixue Hu, Laura C. Jackson, Colin Jones, Hyungjun Kim, Torben Koenigk, Peter Lawrence, Timothy M. Lenton, Hannah Liddy, José Licón-Saláiz, Maxence Menthon, Marisa Montoya, Jan Nitzbon, Sophie Nowicki, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Francesco Pausata, Stefan Rahmstorf, Karoline Ramin, Alexander Robinson, Johan Rockström, Anastasia Romanou, Boris Sakschewski, Christina Schädel, Steven Sherwood, Robin S. Smith, Norman J. Steinert, Didier Swingedouw, Matteo Willeit, Wilbert Weijer, Richard Wood, Klaus Wyser, and Shuting Yang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1899, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1899, 2025
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The Tipping Points Modelling Intercomparison Project (TIPMIP) is an international collaborative effort to systematically assess tipping point risks in the Earth system using state-of-the-art coupled and stand-alone domain models. TIPMIP will provide a first global atlas of potential tipping dynamics, respective critical thresholds and key uncertainties, generating an important building block towards a comprehensive scientific basis for policy- and decision-making.
Matteo Willeit, Andrey Ganopolski, Neil R. Edwards, and Stefan Rahmstorf
Clim. Past, 20, 2719–2739, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2719-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2719-2024, 2024
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Using an Earth system model that can simulate Dansgaard–Oeschger-like events, we show that conditions under which millennial-scale climate variability occurs are related to the integrated surface buoyancy flux over the northern North Atlantic. This newly defined buoyancy measure explains why millennial-scale climate variability arising from abrupt changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation occurred for mid-glacial conditions but not for interglacial or full glacial conditions.
David B. Bonan, Jakob Dörr, Robert C. J. Wills, Andrew F. Thompson, and Marius Årthun
The Cryosphere, 18, 2141–2159, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2141-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2141-2024, 2024
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Antarctic sea ice has exhibited variability over satellite records, including a period of gradual expansion and a period of sudden decline. We use a novel statistical method to identify sources of variability in observed Antarctic sea ice changes. We find that the gradual increase in sea ice is likely related to large-scale temperature trends, and periods of abrupt sea ice decline are related to specific flavors of equatorial tropical variability known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
Jakob Simon Dörr, David B. Bonan, Marius Årthun, Lea Svendsen, and Robert C. J. Wills
The Cryosphere, 17, 4133–4153, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4133-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4133-2023, 2023
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Ole Rieke, Marius Årthun, and Jakob Simon Dörr
The Cryosphere, 17, 1445–1456, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1445-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1445-2023, 2023
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The Barents Sea is the region of most intense winter sea ice loss, and future projections show a continued decline towards ice-free conditions by the end of this century but with large fluctuations. Here we use climate model simulations to look at the occurrence and drivers of rapid ice change events in the Barents Sea that are much stronger than the average ice loss. A better understanding of these events will contribute to improved sea ice predictions in the Barents Sea.
Willem Huiskamp and Shayne McGregor
Clim. Past, 17, 1819–1839, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1819-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1819-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the reliability of paleo-reconstructions of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) using climate model data. We find that reconstructions are able to capture ~ 60 % of the SAM variability at best, with poorer reconstructions managing only 35 %. Reconstructions perform best when they use more proxies sourced from the entire Southern Hemisphere land mass. Future reconstructions should endeavour to address both sampling and proxy–SAM correlation stability uncertainties.
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Short summary
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is weakening in response to global warming, while the Nordic Seas Overturning Circulation (NOC) is projected to strengthen. We suggest a feedback mechanism in which a weakened AMOC leads to reduced salt transport into the North Atlantic, decreasing the density in that region and potentially strengthening the NOC.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is weakening in response to global...
