Journal article
Recent observed changes in the North Atlantic climate system with a focus on 2005-2016
- Abstract:
- Major changes are occurring across the North Atlantic climate system, including in the atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere, and many observed changes are unprecedented in instrumental records. As the changes in the North Atlantic directly affect the climate and air quality of the surrounding continents, it is important to fully understand how and why the changes are taking place, not least to predict how the region will change in the future. To this end, this article characterizes the recent observed changes in the North Atlantic region, especially in the period 2005–2016, across many different aspects of the system including: atmospheric circulation; atmospheric composition; clouds and aerosols; ocean circulation and properties; and the cryosphere. Recent changes include: an increase in the speed of the North Atlantic jet stream in winter; a southward shift in the North Atlantic jet stream in summer, associated with a weakening summer North Atlantic Oscillation; increases in ozone and methane; increases in net absorbed radiation in the mid‐latitude western Atlantic, linked to an increase in the abundance of high level clouds and a reduction in low level clouds; cooling of sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre, concomitant with increases in the western subtropical gyre, and a decline in the Atlantic Ocean's overturning circulation; a decline in Atlantic sector Arctic sea ice and rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. There are many interactions between these changes, but these interactions are poorly understood. This article concludes by highlighting some of the key outstanding questions.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Journal:
- International Journal of Climatology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 38
- Issue:
- 14
- Pages:
- 5050-5076
- Publication date:
- 2018-09-05
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-07-17
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1097-0088
- ISSN:
-
0899-8418
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:892003
- UUID:
-
uuid:e33ab85a-0494-436e-a972-1f1184d66e83
- Local pid:
-
pubs:892003
- Source identifiers:
-
892003
- Deposit date:
-
2018-08-01
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Robson et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- © 2018 The Authors. International Journal of Climatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Royal Meteorological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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