Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation approaching a tipping point?
Veröld - Hús Vigdísar
VHV 023
Open lecture hosted by the Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Iceland, Friday, October 18th, from 12:00 to 15:00 in Veröld VHV-023.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has a major impact on climate, not just around the northern Atlantic but globally. Paleoclimatic data show it has been rather unstable in the past, leading to some of the most dramatic and abrupt climate shifts known. These instabilities are due to two different types of tipping points, linked to amplifying feedbacks in the large-scale salt transport and in the convective mixing which drives the flow. Of particular concern is the evidence for an ongoing weakening of the AMOC: it likely is already at its weakest in a millennium.
These tipping points present a major risk of abrupt ocean circulation and climate shifts as we push our planet further out of the stable Holocene climate into uncharted waters.
The lecture will discuss the paleoclimatic evidence, the instability mechanisms, the evidence for an AMOC slowdown and how close we may be to a dangerous tipping point of existential importance to Iceland.
The lecture will also be streamed.
Speaker: Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf
Stefan Rahmstorf is Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam and heads the Earth System Analysis Department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He served on the German government's Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2004-2013. Rahmstorf has published over 140 scientific studies, including 42 in the leading journals of Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as four popular science books. In 2024 he was awarded the European Geosciences Union’s Alfred Wegener Medal for his scientific achievements, and he has received several awards for climate communication, including the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union and the Stephen H. Schneider Award.
Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf is Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam and heads the Earth System Analysis Department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He served on the German government's Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2004-2013. Rahmstorf has published over 140 scientific studies, including 42 in the leading journals of Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as four popular science books. In 2024 he was awarded the European Geosciences Union’s Alfred Wegener Medal for his scientific achievements, and he has received several awards for climate communication, including the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union and the Stephen H. Schneider Award.
