oceanlove

  By Kevin Keane BBC Scotland's environment correspondent Underwater gliders are deployed off the Outer Hebrides Scientists in Scotland are using robotic subsea gliders to check ocean currents for signs of climate collapse.   They are monitoring the "conveyor belt" which carries warm and cool water between the Caribbean and the Arctic.   Scientists fear a weakening of the system would have a devastating effect across large parts of the planet.   The Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams) at Oban is deploying the robots on autonomous missions between the UK and Iceland over five months.   Atlantic circulation is important for distributing tropical heat across the world and keeps northern Europe at a more temperate climate than other locations on the same latitude.   How currents affect global temperatures Its collapse is referred to as one of the climate "tipping points" and there is some research to suggest it might be very slowl...

  Will the Gulf Stream really shut down?   BY ALISON PEARCE STEVENS | NOVEMBER 9, 2023   Recent news headlines suggest the Gulf Stream current could shut down in just a few years — or perhaps a few decades — bringing about a catastrophic change in global climate. Will the Gulf Stream actually shut down? No, say oceanographers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.   Why do headlines say otherwise? It’s due to an oversimplification of the currents that drive global climate. People conflate the Gulf Stream with a more complex system of currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC.   “The Gulf Stream plays a role in the AMOC, but it is also distinct from the AMOC,” explains WHOI physical oceanographer Robert Todd. It’s one arm of a multi-tiered system that circulates water horizontally and vertically throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream flows along the east coast of North America, carrying warm water fro...

   The land beneath the New York City area, including the borough of Queens, pictured here, is moving by fractions of inches each year. The motions are a legacy of the ice age and also due to human land usage. NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists using space-based radar found that land in New York City is sinking at varying rates from human and natural factors. A few spots are rising.   Parts of the New York City metropolitan area are sinking and rising at different rates due to factors ranging from land-use practices to long-lost glaciers, scientists have found. While the elevation changes seem small – fractions of inches per year – they can enhance or diminish local flood risk linked to sea level rise.   The new study was published Wednesday in Science Advances by a team of researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and Rutgers University in New Jersey. The team analyzed upward and downward vertical land motion – also known as uplift an...