Abstract
The Gulf Stream is the upper-ocean limb of a powerful current system known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—the strongest oceanic pacemaker of the Atlantic Ocean and perhaps the entire Earth’s climate. Understanding the long-term variability of the Gulf Stream path is critical for resolving how the ocean, as a climate driver, works. A captivating facet of the Gulf Stream as a large-scale ocean climate phenomenon is its astounding resilience on timescales of decades and longer. Although the Gulf Stream has been vigorously explored over many decades, its long-term constancy deserves further scrutiny using the increased volume of in situ marine observations. We report a new study where the decadal variability of the Gulf Stream north wall (defined by the 15 °C isotherm at 200 m)—the major marker of the Gulf Stream pathway—is analyzed using in situ observations collected over the last 53 years.
Highlights
The Gulf Stream is the upper-ocean limb of a powerful current system known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—the strongest oceanic pacemaker of the Atlantic Ocean and perhaps the entire Earth’s climate
The surface Gulf Stream (GS) path plots from[35] and from the Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) http://www.meds-sdmm.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/isdm-gdsi/azmp-pmza/ climat/gulf-golfe/slope-plateau-eng.html both show increasing spatial spread east of 75°W. Both are based on the data derived from satellite and cannot be directly compared to our analysis because we trace the Gulf Stream north wall (GSNW) at 200 m depth
Our analysis indicates that establishing this relationship between GSNW position changes and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) decadal variability is problematic
Summary
The Gulf Stream is the upper-ocean limb of a powerful current system known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—the strongest oceanic pacemaker of the Atlantic Ocean and perhaps the entire Earth’s climate. There are two important issues related to the long-term displacements of the Gulf Stream (GS) path that have not yet been unambiguously resolved It is not completely clear how significantly the GS path’s position varies on decadal timescales. Based on the wide acceptance of using the 15 °C isotherm at 200 m depth as the definition of the northern edge of the GS10–12,18, we focus this study on decadal variability of the GSNW position traced by in situ data at 200 m depth This sub-surface definition of the GS path is advantageous to this study as it is not impacted by surface dynamics resulting from air-sea interactions (e.g., Ekman currents, off-shore precipitations, etc.). The amplitude of the GS latitudinal displacement varies over years as implied by various GS indices[13,17,20] and is considered www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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