The return of equatorial Atlantic extreme events
Submitted by Yang Zhao on Tue, 2025-11-11 01:05
The return of equatorial Atlantic extreme events
(F. P. Tuchen, University of Bremen, Germany & member of the CLIVAR Atlantic Region Panel)

(F. P. Tuchen, University of Bremen, Germany & member of the CLIVAR Atlantic Region Panel)

The Atlantic Niño is a climate variability pattern that was discovered in the 1970s and has been likened to El Niño. Just as we thought we had made good progress in understanding this phenomenon, it seems like it might go “extinct”, potentially due to climate change. Is the Atlantic Niño really going the way of the dodo, or is it merely taking a rest?

The great ocean conveyor belt is a colloquial term that is used to refer to the loosely organised band of currents that circulate around the world’s oceans. In the Atlantic sector, we’ve taken to calling this the ‘Atlantic meridional overturning circulation’ (aka AMOC) where near surface waters (top 1km) move northwards and deep currents (between 1km and 4km depth) move southwards. What is this system of currents? What has it been doing lately? Read on to find out more…
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