AGU Fall Meeting

GEOTRACES-related session:

Title: Advances in Understanding Meridional Overturning Circulation from Past to Future: Insights from Multiple Approaches
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm20/meetingapp.cgi/Session/110375

Abstract:
The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) is a major driver of Earth’s climate and biogeochemical cycling on many timescales. Modern oceanographic observations and modeling studies are making great advances in understanding MOC dynamics, predictability, and connections to Earth’s systems over seasonal to decadal periods. Meanwhile, paleoclimate observations and modeling studies have highlighted the close link between changes in the climate system and variations in the structure and/or magnitude of MOC over multi-decadal to tectonic timescales. Much remains to be understood about the interplay between MOC changes and the cryosphere, atmosphere, and ocean biogeochemistry, as well as mechanisms driving past, present and future MOC variations. Modern and Paleo approaches are complementary and together bring new insights into MOC dynamics and predictability under future climate conditions. This session welcomes theoretical, modeling, and observation-based studies that investigate the nature, stability and sensitivity of the MOC to external forcing and internal feedbacks across seasonal-to-tectonic timescales.

Primary Conveners
Kelly H Kilbourne
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Lab

Conveners
Feng He
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Xu Zhang
Lanzhou University
Julia Gottschalk
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University of the City of New York