14 DAY TRIAL // Europe's climate is mainly influenced by the Gulf Stream, experts agree, but a new study shows that currents passing over the southern tip of Africa may also play a regulatory role in this. The implication here is that the continent's climate may in the future be regulated by the Agulhas Current.
As the effects of global warming continue to spread widely across the globe, computer models show that the Gulf Stream will begin to exert fewer and weaker effects on Europe than it did until now.
This marine current that rotates in the Northern Atlantic is the main reason why Europe is habitable, and not covered in a mile of ice. Without it, glaciers and ice caps would extend all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
Current simulations of what will happen to Earth's climate in the future indicate that the climate above Europe will have a lot to suffer as the Gulf Stream gets weaker. But that is not necessarily the case in reality, says an international team of researchers in a new study.
The work, published in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Nature, indicates that the Agulhas Current, which connects the Indian and Atlantic oceans, may also play an important role in determining the characteristics of the European climate.
According to past studies, the reason why the Gulf Stream will get weaker is because it will receive more precipitation than normal, as well as a greater amount of water from the melting of Greenland glaciers. This will in turn reduce the salinity of the North Atlantic, AlphaGalileo reports.
On the other hand, the Agulhas Current transports high density saltwater in the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is able to carry massive amounts of the stuff around with relative ease, and this salt could potentially replenish deficiencies caused by the weakening Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic.
Recent computational climate models included in this study reveal that the influx of saltwater from the Indian Ocean could enable Europe to retain its habitable climate. A part of the salt carried by the Agulhas Current makes its way to the South Atlantic.
The new, 6-year investigation was conducted by expert Rainer Zahn, who holds an appointment as an ICREA research professor in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Department of Physics.
He is also an investigator at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA). The expert and his group revealed a large number of aspects related to all the currents making their way into the North Atlantic.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF), the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) and the International Marine Global Change Study (IMAGES) are just a few of the organizations that contributed to the research.