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Title: Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation covaries with Agulhas leakage

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10082· OSTI ID:1259279
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel (Germany)
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  3. Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia); Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, Princeton, NJ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The interoceanic transfer of seawater between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, ‘Agulhas leakage’, forms a choke point for the overturning circulation in the global ocean. Here, by combining output from a series of high-resolution ocean and climate models with in situ and satellite observations, we construct a time series of Agulhas leakage for the period 1870–2014. The time series demonstrates the impact of Southern Hemisphere westerlies on decadal timescales. Agulhas leakage shows a correlation with the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation on multi-decadal timescales; the former leading by 15 years. Lastly, this is relevant for climate in the North Atlantic.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012457; DE130101336; 03G0835A
OSTI ID:
1259279
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 45 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

The impact of horizontal resolution of density field on the calculation of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at 34°S: ATLANTIC MOC AND MHT AT 34°S journal June 2016
Impact of slowdown of Atlantic overturning circulation on heat and freshwater transports: IMPACT OF AMOC SLOWDOWN journal July 2016
A new record of Atlantic sea surface salinity from 1896 to 2013 reveals the signatures of climate variability and long-term trends: New Atlantic Sea Surface Salinity Record journal January 2017
Observational Advances in Estimates of Oceanic Heating journal May 2016
Influence of ENSO Events on the Agulhas Leakage Region journal December 2018
Agulhas Current Meanders Facilitate Shelf‐Slope Exchange on the Eastern Agulhas Bank journal July 2018
South Atlantic Forced Multidecadal Teleconnection to the Midlatitude South Indian Ocean journal August 2018
Submesoscale Impacts on Mesoscale Agulhas Dynamics journal August 2019
Recent intensification of Amazon flooding extremes driven by strengthened Walker circulation journal September 2018
The Effect of Agulhas Eddies on Absorption and Transport of Anthropogenic Carbon in the South Atlantic Ocean journal June 2019
Role of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Events on Temperature and Salinity Variability in the Agulhas Leakage Region journal January 2018
The INALT family – a set of high-resolution nests for the Agulhas Current system within global NEMO ocean/sea-ice configurations journal January 2019
Freshening of Antarctic Intermediate Water in the South Atlantic Ocean in 2005–2014 journal January 2017
A study of the variability in the Benguela Current volume transport journal January 2018
Moored observations of mesoscale features in the Cape Basin: characteristics and local impacts on water mass distributions journal January 2018
Cold vs. warm water route – sources for the upper limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation revisited in a high-resolution ocean model journal January 2019
Moored observations of mesoscale features in the Cape Basin: Characteristics and local impacts on water mass distributions posted_content November 2017

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