Understanding climate
for the benefit of society

NORTH

NORthern constraints on the Atlantic ThermoHaline circulation

 

NORTH team 2014. Foto: Gudrun Sylte
NORTH project participants gathered for the Kick-off meeting in September 2014. From left, Erwin Lambert (UiB), Bert Rudels (FMI), Mehmet Ilicak (Uni Research), Tor Eldevik (UiB), Anne Britt Sandø (IMR), Steffen Olsen (DMI), Mike Spall (WHOI), Helene Langehaug (NERSC), Peter M. Haugan (UiB), Jan Even Øie Nilsen (NERSC), Ingrid Onarheim (UiB), Marius Årthun (UiB), Rune Time (UiS), Gudrun Sylte (Uni Research). ​

 

The overall objective for the NORTH project is: to assess the fundamental structure and operation of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation’s northern limb and thus constrain its mean state, variance, and sensitivity related to ob- served and projected climate change, including possible feedbacks.


Figure 1 The Arctic Mediterranean (background map from ibcao.org) and
Atlantic inflow (red arrow) is warm and saline, polar outflow (blue) is fresh and cold, and the over- flows (black) are dense and cold.

For figure 1 and 2 (under) the climatology is based on Nilsen et al. (2008). EGC – East Greenland Current; DS – Denmark Strait; IFR – Iceland-Faroe Ridge; FSC – Faroe-Shetland Channel.


Figure 2. The hydrography of northern THC at its gateway, the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The mean exchange across the ridge, and the hydrographic contrasts and buoyancy forcing associated are schematically indicated.