Temperatures in the neighboring deep ocean are moderated by strong
northward transport of heat in the Gulf Stream, which begins to veer eastward before reaching Georges Bank.
Continued operation of the oceanic conveyor belt is important to northern Europe's moderate climate because of
northward transport of heat in the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current.
This northward transport of heat is exactly what we understand is required to weaken the polar vortex.
Not exact matches
The THC actually
transports a positive net amount
of heat northward across the equator from the South Atlantic to the North Atlantic.
It then turns into the North Atlantic Drift which is really the flow
of water responsible for the anomalous
northward heat transport in the Atlantic.
It is shallow so
transports a lot
of heat northward.
Based on various paleoclimate proxies and model results, it has been suggested that the input
of freshwater into the North Atlantic following these events led to slowdowns
of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and reductions
of its considerable
northward cross-equatorial
heat transport.
All
of these characteristics (except for the ocean temperature) have been used in SAR and TAR IPCC (Houghton et al. 1996; 2001) reports for model - data inter-comparison: we considered as tolerable the following intervals for the annual means
of the following climate characteristics which encompass corresponding empirical estimates: global SAT 13.1 — 14.1 °C (Jones et al. 1999); area
of sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere 6 — 14 mil km2 and in the Southern Hemisphere 6 — 18 mil km2 (Cavalieri et al. 2003); total precipitation rate 2.45 — 3.05 mm / day (Legates 1995); maximum Atlantic
northward heat transport 0.5 — 1.5 PW (Ganachaud and Wunsch 2003); maximum
of North Atlantic meridional overturning stream function 15 — 25 Sv (Talley et al. 2003), volume averaged ocean temperature 3 — 5 °C (Levitus 1982).
While the circulation
of the Atlantic Ocean has a complex three - dimensional spatial structure, the zonally integrated flow in the basin, referred to as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is largely responsible for the net
northward oceanic
heat transport on climate - relevant timescales.
The AMOC has a considerable influence over European climate from the
northward heat transport by the Gulf Stream and a slowdown or halt
of the AMOC could have a large impact on climate and even induce abrupt climate changes (Alley et al, 2002; Alley, 2007).
Northward ocean
heat transport achieved by the AMOC is responsible for the relative warmth
of the Northern Hemisphere, compared to the Southern Hemisphere, and is thought to play a role in setting the mean position
of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone north
of the equator.
To the north
of the deep mixed layers, eddy processes drive the warming and account for nearly 80 %
of the
northward heat transport anomaly.