HR: 17:30h
AN: GC24A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: North Atlantic warming: Fingerprints of climate change and long-term variability
AU: Polyakov, I V
EM: igor@iarc.uaf.edu
AF: International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 757335, Fairbanks, AK 99775, United States
AU: Alexeev, V A
EM: valexeev@iarc.uaf.edu
AF: International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 757335, Fairbanks, AK 99775, United States
AU: * Bhatt, U S
AF: Geophisical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 930 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775, United States
AU: Polyakova, E I
EM: jenya@pangea.stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Department of Geological and Environmental Studies, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AB: Climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean has wide-spread implications for Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This study demonstrates that recent warming over the North Atlantic is linked to both long-term (including anthropogenic) climate change and multidecadal variability (~50-80 years). The multidecadal variability has basin-scale sea surface temperature anomalies accounting for ~60 percent of North Atlantic warming since 1970. In contrast, the overall long-term warming trend exhibits a pattern of cooling in regions associated with major northward heat transports, consistent with a slowdown of the North Atlantic circulation. This localized cooling has been masked in recent decades by warming during the positive phase of multidecadal variability. The next cold phase could induce a cooler North Atlantic, having serious implications for climate over Europe.
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting