BODC-British Oceanographic Data Centre
2006年已经取得淡水对海洋环流的影响资料
RAPID - Round 1 - The role of salinity in ocean circulation and climate response to greenhouse gas forcing Project
Introduction
Salinity is a major contributor to ocean circulation, stability and variability. Its structure depends on the surface freshwater flux whose distribution is likely to change significantly under global warming, giving rise to the potential for abrupt changes in climate. This project will investigate the mechanisms and feedback loops which govern the salinity distribution in coupled ocean-atmosphere models. Carefully designed experiments where feedbacks are removed will provide a major contribution to understand the role of salinity in the climate response to greenhouse gas forcing. Innovative diagnostics will be developed to assess the salinity/fresh water cycle performance of climate forecast models.
Project Duration: 1 Oct 2003 - 30 Sep 2006
This project is funded by NERC - Grant Ref. NER/T/S/2002/00442 - through the RAPID Climate Change NERC directed mode programme.

POL Annual Report 2008-2009
去年又已经取得大西洋环流缓慢下来的资料
Ocean circulation, sea level and climate
Measuring the Atlantic Ocean conveyor

The Atlantic’s Meridional Overturning
Circulation (MOC) carries heat from the
southern hemisphere to the North Atlantic
region. If it stopped flowing, north-west
Europe would be several degrees cooler. It
is suggested that this overturning circulation
may have slowed by a third since 1957.
Monitoring this ocean wide circulation is a
major challenge because eddies and local
recirculation dominate the picture at most
locations. Rory Bingham and Chris Hughes,
with Ric Williams and Vassil Roussenov from
the University of Liverpool, are researching the
The Atlantic’s Meridional Overturning
Circulation (MOC) carries heat from the
southern hemisphere to the North Atlantic
region. If it stopped flowing, north-west
Europe would be several degrees cooler. It
is suggested that this overturning circulation
may have slowed by a third since 1957.
Monitoring this ocean wide circulation is a
major challenge because eddies and local
recirculation dominate the picture at most
locations. Rory Bingham and Chris Hughes,
with Ric Williams and Vassil Roussenov from
the University of Liverpool, are researching the
MOC. They found, in various ocean models,
the MOC can be accurately monitored using
only measurements down the continental
slope at the western side of the ocean. Also,
using 150 years (1856–2005) of tide gauge
measurements, they found strong signs
that coastal sea level measurements alone
produce an accurate measure of the MOC.
Assuming the model carries over to the real
world, the results show the MOC has varied
by less than a quarter since 1856, and has, if
anything, slightly speeded up since 1957.