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Introduction
Both the scientific press and the broadcast media have become interested in the conjecture that increased melting of polar ice in a globally-warming climate could cause severe regional cooling, effectively by 'capping' the cooling and sinking of warm waters at high latitudes. Projections by climate forecasters of future climate show that the 'Conveyor Belt', the northwards movement of warm waters in the Atlantic balanced by the southwards movement of this cooled, deep water, could slow down or stop, with drastic consequences particularly for north-west Europe, including the UK. Now much of the southgoing water comes from Arctic, and it flows over a shallow submarine ridge between Greenland, Iceland and Scotland before sinking to great depths as it travels south. It is a surprising fact that no-one really knows how this water is 'made' - meaning where and how the warm surface waters get converted to the cold southgoing deep waters. It is a very difficult question to answer with measurements because you really seem to need to know everything, everywhere, at all times, and we just cannot manage that. Therefore our project will use a very high-resolution numerical model (like a weather forecast model in the ocean) to solve the problem, and we will make sure that our model does the best possible job by comparing it with some special high-quality measurements of ocean circulation and sea ice. This will let us tell climate forecasters how to make these cooled waters correctly, so that they will do a better job with their forecasts.
Project Duration: 12 Apr 2005 - 25 Sep 2008
This project is funded by NERC - Lead Grant Ref. NE/C509307/1 - through the RAPID Climate Change NERC directed mode programme.
Access to data and information
Data and software supplied from this project to the BADC will be stored in the BADC RAPID archive.
Access to the archive is currently restricted to participants to this particular project. If you are a programme participant and would like to access this RAPID project data, then please apply for access* to the RAPID data.
You will be requested to abide by the
RAPID Climate Change Data Policy.
Data management, availability and use are ruled by the
RAPID Climate Change Programme Data Management Plan
(PDF document).
Access to Hadley Centre model data held at the BADC is subject to the signature of the NERC-Met Office agreement.
* Note that to apply for access to this dataset, you should first register as a BADC user (anyone is allowed to register). If you are already a registered BADC user, skip this step. If you have forgotten your BADC user ID and/or password, please contact the BADC helpdesk at badc@rl.ac.uk. To register as a new BADC user, please follow the instructions online.
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