Changing the MOC

• we are bathed in heat carried over from the gulf stream transferred from the atmosphere
• warm air from gulf stream brings high humidity
• changing the MOC would include

  adding freshwater, changing the mixing, changing the atmospheric temperature
• RAPID array


  an array of mooring that measures the properties of the AMOC
• OSNAP array


  international program designed to provide a continuous record of the full-water column, trans-basin fluxes of heat, mass and freshwater in the subpolar North Atlantic
• AMOC has dropped by 20% since 2004
• copper cables are used to measure the flow in the RAPID array
• copper cables conduct electricity as the water flows over it
• sverdrup is the unit of volumetric flow rate
• sverdrup represented by Sv
• one Sv is the same as 1 million cubic meters per second
• if the MOC shuts down it could not lead to an ice age due to atmospheric temperature increasing
• since 2004, our global temperature has increased by 1C
• the gulf stream is driven by the Coriolis force
• 2250 will have a flatline in atmospheric CO2 as there will be no more fossils fuel to burn
• 2250 will have atmospheric carbon similar to that of the eocene
• by 2100 the MOC will have halfed
• the average global temperature in 2100 will be 18C
• is MOC goes we will lose a lot of primary productive systems
• year 3000 there will be a 15 meter sea level rise
• white sharks have a temperature range of 12-24C so they will start moving poleward as ocean warms up
• corals can reduce bleaching if the current brings up nutrients so there is less reliance of photosynthesis
• carbon capture not as successful at reducing carbon output
• in 2023 there was 24 billion tonnes of CO2 pumped out