The plethora of graphs and charts showing planetary warming and 2015’s new record temps all show, amidst a sea of hot reds and yellows, that mysterious cooling blob in the Atlantic south of Greenland.
One oceanographer I talked to last summer had some questions about the significance of Stefan Rahmstorf et al’s paper on this phenomenon – which I summarized in the video above. But as time goes on, the mystery continues to deepen.
No mystery at all. The reason is the acceleration of Greenland glacier melt due to a warming planet. More cold freshwater is remaining longer on the surface of the warmer – but denser – sea water, before getting mixed. So we can all see and feel a direct impact on our weather in Ireland. This phenomenon has shown to become stronger in recent years. And there are no indications of a slow-down. The opposite is the case.
=> What scientists just discovered in Greenland could be making sea-level rise even worse
=> Scientists Warn Climate Change Affecting Greenland Ice Sheet More Than Previously Thought
=> Greenland Will Lose Mass Faster due to Ice “Lid”
And this has another implication which is also worrisome => Study: Melting Greenland ice sheet is rapidly slowing the Gulf Stream
The development over the last three years is looking scary:
http://i.picasion.com/pic81/6957e2380f69a4ffa40b67879f81e5d2.gif
That was my first thought too upon seeing where it is located. It’s only going to get bigger and more impactful on the existing thermohaline pump
Most likely. Here a new post by Stefan Rahmstorf on Real Climate which gives us more of an enlightenment => Blizzard Jonas and the slowdown of the Gulf Stream System
I would point out that the rapid cooling of the last year in the North Atlantic is possibly a response to the weakened trade winds and mid-latitude westerlies that accompanies the positive (warm) phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO). Weaker trade winds mean less warm tropical water reaches the North Atlantic via the western boundary current. Some climate models, notably NCAR’s CCSM4, exhibit a pronounced cooling in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (NASPG), below Greenland, when the IPO is positive.
So we have this long-term cooling in the North Atlantic as a result of freshwater input from glacier melt that may be exaggerated by the apparent switch to decades of accelerated surface warming (positive IPO).
Please see the article by Stefan Rahmstorf in my recent post above.