Study suggests Atlantic circulation could rebound if global temperatures fall

A recent paper in Science Advances by the Danish Meteorological Institute examined how the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) responds to extreme warming and subsequent cooling. The model showed the circulation slowing from roughly 17 million to 6 million cubic metres per second under 7 °C of warming, but it did not collapse irreversibly. When global temperatures are reduced, the AMOC begins to recover immediately, though the process could extend over several centuries and the impacts of a weakened state would linger.

The research highlighted that meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet, a key factor in the slowdown, would not be restored even if cooling occurs. Continued weakening could disrupt global precipitation and accelerate sea-level rise along coasts. While the findings offer some optimism, external experts caution that actual ocean behavior may be less stable than the model suggests, and they call for further testing with additional climate models.