Event Details

Date:
Wednesday, 02 March 2016 - Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Time:
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Room:
Room 275
Location:
Global Change Institute (20),
URL:
http://gci.uq.edu.au/events/exceptional-twentieth-century-slowdown-atlantic-ocean-overturning-circulation
Event category(s):

Event Contact

Name:
Ms Krystle Henry
Phone:
3443 3118
Email:
k.henry1@uq.edu.au
Org. Unit:
Global Change Institute

Event Description

Full Description:
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) provides a key source of uncertainty regarding future climate change. Maps of temperature trends over the twentieth century show a conspicuous region of cooling in the northern Atlantic. We present multiple lines of evidence suggesting that this cooling may be due to a reduction in the AMOC over the twentieth century and particularly after 1970. This time evolution is consistently suggested by an AMOC index based on sea surface temperatures, by the hemispheric temperature difference, by coral-based proxies and by oceanic measurements. Using a multi-proxy temperature reconstruction for the AMOC index suggests that the AMOC weakness after 1975 is an unprecedented event in the past millennium (p>0.99).

In this seminar, Professor Rahmstorf will discuss the apparent slowdown of one of the world's major ocean circulations, the role of the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet to the slowdown as well its possible consequences.

About the Speaker

Stefan Rahmstorf is Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University and Department Head at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He is also Fellow of the American Geophysical Union Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales/Bangor Member of the Academia Europaea. His most recent book is The Climate Crisis.

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