Global Warming Atlantic Current Shift Gulf Stream Labrador Current Interactions

Tags: Global Warming Gulf Labrador Currents Interaction Change Cold Europe Dry Russia

Several years ago I read an article that showed that the Gulf Stream which normally sinks and turns towards Europe has diminished by two-thirds and the Gulf current going north did not slow down. This AP type report from France does not go into the more complex arguments involved in these currents, so I will not go into this now.

I predicted then that Europe will become colder in the winter. That seems to be happening now. Based on the La Nina winter effects on the east coast states, it is even possible that the warming Gulf Stream may be slowing down in its flow towards us and may be shifting elsewhere. This is just a wild guess.

I am writing a series of articles and ideas about Global Warming effects on my blog and do not plan to e-mail these complex arguments because most of you will not necessary be interested. Some will.

Jim Kawakami, Jan 5, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Atlantic Currents Have Seen Drastic Changes, Agence France-Presse, Jan 4, 2011, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/atlantic-currents-drastic-study/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=d40d922f93-1_41_4_2011&utm_medium=email

Scientists have found evidence of a "drastic" shift since the 1970s in north Atlantic Ocean currents that usually influence weather in the northern hemisphere, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

The team of biochemists and oceanographers from Switzerland, Canada and the United States detected changes in deep sea Atlantic corals that indicated the declining influence of the cold northern Labrador Current.

They said in the US National Academy of Science journal PNAS that the change "since the early 1970s is largely unique in the context of the last approximately 1,800 years," and raised the prospect of a direct link with global warming.

The Labrador Current interacts with the warmer Gulfstream from the south.

They in turn have a complex interaction with a climate pattern, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which has a dominant impact on weather in Europe and North America.

Scientists have pointed to a disruption or shifts in the oscillation as an explanation for moist or harsh winters in Europe, or severe summer droughts such as in Russia, in recent years.

One of the five scientists, Carsten Schubert, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology (EAWAG), underlined that for nearly 2,000 years the sub polar Labrador current off northern Canada and Newfoundland was the dominant force.

However that pattern appeared to have only been repeated occasionally in recent decades.

"Now the southern current has taken over, it's really a drastic change," Schubert told AFP, pointing to the evidence of the shift towards warmer water in the northwest Atlantic.

The research was based on nitrogen isotope signatures in 700 year old coral reefs on the ocean floor, which feed on sinking organic particles.

While water pushed by the Gulfstream is salty and rich in nutrients, the colder Arctic waters carried by the Labrador current contain fewer nutrients.

Changes could be dated because of the natural growth rings seen in corals.

"The researchers suspect there is a direct connection between the changes in oceanic currents in the North Atlantic and global warming caused by human activities," said EAWAG in a statement.