Gulf Stream Excursions and Sectional Detachments Generate the Decadal Pulses in the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Abstract

Decadal pulses within the lower-frequency Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) are a prominent but underappreciated AMO feature, representing decadal variability of the subpolar gyre (e.g., the Great Salinity Anomaly of the 1970s) and wielding notable influence on the hydroclimate of the African and American continents. Here clues are sought into their origin in the spatiotemporal development of the Gulf Stream’s (GS) meridional excursions and sectional detachments apparent in the 1954–2012 record of ocean surface and subsurface salinity and temperature observations. The GS excursions are tracked via meridional displacement of the 15°C isotherm at 200-m depth—the GS index—whereas the AMO’s decadal pulses are targeted through the AMO tendency, which implicitly highlights the shorter time scales of the AMO index. The GS’s northward shift is shown to be preceded by the positive phase of the low-frequency North Atlantic Oscillation (LF-NAO) and followed by a positive AMO tendency by 1.25 and 2.5 years, respectively. The temporal phasing is such that the GS’s northward shift is nearly concurrent with the AMO’s cold decadal phase (cold, fresh subpolar gyre). Ocean–atmosphere processes that can initiate phase reversal of the gyre state are discussed, starting with the reversal of the LF-NAO, leading to a mechanistic hypothesis for decadal fluctuations of the subpolar gyre. According to the hypothesis, the fluctuation time scale is set by the self-feedback of the LF-NAO from its influence on SSTs in the seas around Greenland, and by the cross-basin transit of the GS’s detached eastern section; the latter is produced by the southward intrusion of subpolar water through the Newfoundland basin, just prior to the GS’s northward shift in the western basin.