Science Highlights

Recent slowing of Atlantic overturning circulation as a recovery from earlier strengthening

A new ocean ‘reanalysis’ shows, although there are uncertainties over what might happen in the short term, the longer-term view is that a weakening of the circulation in the 21st century is still very likely as a result of increasing greenhouse gases.

ENSO and greenhouse warming

ENSO's response to greenhouse warming has challenged scientists for decades, despite model agreement on projected mean state changes. Recent studies have provided new insights into the elusive links between ENSO and Pacific climate mean-state changes.

Pacific western boundary currents and their roles in climate

The influence on ENSO's life cycle via equatorward WBC transport, the longevity of SST anomalies and strong advection transport of warm water by the Kuroshio Current, the considerable impact on Asian Monsoon via anomalous heat content exerted by the North Pacific WBCs, all have substantial climate impacts locally and globally.

The Benguela Upwelling System: Quantifying the Sensitivity to Resolution and Coastal Wind Representation in a Global Climate Model

Of all the major coastal upwelling systems in the World’s ocean, the Benguela, located off south-west Africa, is the one which climate models find hardest to simulate well. Small et al. investigates the sensitivity of a climate model in this region

Can ocean models reproduce the observed signature of water cycle intensification?

Global warming drives changes in the salinity and temperature of the ocean interior via modified air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater and momentum. Lago et al. study tries to elucidate how the knowledge of surface changes impact on the interior of the ocean over a long timescale.

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