71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water and is influenced by the ocean and its movements. The Atlantic Ocean has a system of coupled currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that moves water throughout the world's oceans. It is driven by a combination of winds and ocean density, and previous studies have shown that it is slowing down and could soon be completely destroyed - such an event would plunge the planet into climate chaos, writes PHYS. org.

The Earth's key current, in fact, not only distributes heat, moisture and ocean nutrients, but also regulates the Earth's climate and weather. With climate crisis already looming over the planet and the planet's atmosphere warming, many scientists fear that fresh water from melting polar ice sheets could significantly disrupt and possibly destroy the AMOC. Previous studies have also supported this theory, and scientists have found that a reduction in AMOC would have serious consequences for the Earth's climate, but its complete destruction would be truly catastrophic..

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However, research into the long-term future is still uncertain. In a new study, a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution did not focus on what awaits us in the future, but quantified the past.. According to the team, this will allow us to understand where we are heading.

New study finds AMOC has slowed over the past 60 years. In simple words, the scientists' findings indicate that the Earth's key current is actually more stable than previously thought..

According to study co-author Nicholas Fucal, a postdoctoral fellow in physical oceanography and assistant professor at the University of Georgia, his and his colleagues' findings indicate that Atlantic overturning has not yet decreased.. However, scientists admit that this does not say anything about the future, it only indicates that the expected changes have not yet occurred.

At the same time, the team's findings contradict previous work.. For example, in a 2018 study, scientists stated that AMOC has decreased over the past 70 years. Note that previous work relied on sea surface temperature measurements to understand how AMOC has changed. However, in a new study, scientists found that sea surface temperature is not as good an indicator as previously thought..

In the new study, scientists relied on new data from the Coupled Model Comparison Project (CMIP), Earth's climate models developed by the World Climate Research Program. A total of 24 different models were used and the scientists found that the most recent available surface temperature data did not accurately reconstruct the AMOC.

Next, the scientists looked at another measure: air-sea heat fluxes, which represent the exchange of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere. Essentially, the stronger the AMOC, the more heat is released from the ocean into the atmosphere over the North Atlantic.

The authors derived this AMOC proxy using CMIP models and then applied it to observational data. The best data on surface heat fluxes over the North Atlantic come from reanalysis products that incorporate direct observations into the model, similar to how weather forecasts work. The scientists focused on two reanalysis data sets that spanned the period since the late 1950s to reconstruct the AMOC.

The results clearly indicate that AMOC is more stable than previously thought.

In simple terms, this could mean that the Earth's key current is actually further away from the point of no return than previously thought. At the same time, scientists admit that in the future the key flow of the Earth will indeed slow down - there is no mystery in this, but whether the flow will collapse or not is still a matter of debate. Now scientists believe humanity still has time to take action.

Previously, Focus wrote that scientists said what would happen if the Gulf Stream collapses.