Russian scientists from the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology refused to accept the findings of an international group of researchers about the unprecedented weakening of the Gulf Stream since the middle of the 20th century over the past thousand years. Experts argue this with the results of instrumental measurements carried out from the 1950s to the 2000s. This was reported by TASS with reference to the director of the institute, Alexei Sokov.
According to Sokov, the data show that in the second half of the 20th century there is no trend in the change in the intensity of the Atlantic current and one cannot speak of any slowdown in circulation. Only fluctuations around the average were recorded, covering a period of 12-15 years. The scientist advised not to make far-reaching conclusions on the basis of one article by German specialists, but to take into account other opinions.
At the same time, a study in the journal Nature Geoscience refers to an earlier article by the same group of scientists, published in the journal Nature back in 2018. In it, the researchers substantiate the conclusion about the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) since the middle of the 20th century, based on the measured surface temperatures (SST) of the Atlantic Ocean, covering the period from 1870 to 2016.
Then the scientists compared the actual figures with the climate model CM2.6, which predicts how the temperature in the Atlantic will change as the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles in 70 years. It is the similarity between the SST data and the simulation results that led scientists to conclude that the AMOC, which includes the Gulf Stream, which moves warm waters to the north Atlantic, is significantly slowing. Moreover, the relative warming in the coastal regions of the Gulf Stream is one of the signs of a weakening of the entire circulation system.
Several papers by other scientists, published in leading scientific journals such as Science and Nature, also confirm the slowdown in AMOC.
