The Gulf Stream, which brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe and keeps the climate mild, is only part of a larger system of oceanic currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. It runs through the Atlantic like a giant climate machine: As warm water from the tropics is transported northwards at the surface, the current reverses in the North Atlantic—the water cools, becomes heavier and flows south at depth.
The Gulf Stream, which brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe and keeps the climate mild, is only part of a larger system of oceanic currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. It runs through the Atlantic like a giant climate machine: As warm water from the tropics is transported northwards at the surface, the current reverses in the North Atlantic—the water cools, becomes heavier and flows south at depth.
Where exactly these sinking processes take place is the subject of current research, and recent measurement programs have located them to the east of Greenland. A team of scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, has now conducted a modeling study focusing on the Labrador Sea southwest of Greenland.
