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North Atlantic Deep Water and Climate Change

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Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Modern North Atlantic deep water

Together, the atmosphere and oceans transport ∼5–6 PW (PW = 1015 W) of heat away from the tropics toward each pole in response to the latitudinal imbalance between incoming solar and outgoing long-wave radiation. In the Atlantic Ocean, net ocean heat transport is northward in both hemispheres, with a maximum of ∼1.3 PW across northern middle latitudes (Ganachaud and Wunsch, 2000). This transport is dominated by the meridional overturning circulation, which transforms warm surface currents (moving predominately northward) into cold deep waters (moving predominately southward). The main product of this transformation is North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which forms poleward of 50° N and fills much of the Atlantic between ∼1 and 4 km depth below sea surface. NADW formation is thus associated with the release of a great deal of heat to the high northern latitude atmosphere.

Modern NADW is ventilated in two main regions of wintertime deep convection: the...

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Authors
  1. Thomas M. Marchitto Jr.
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Vivien Gornitz

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Marchitto, T.M. (2009). North Atlantic Deep Water and Climate Change. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_152

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