Observations and numerical modelling experiments have suggested links between variability in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and global climate patterns. Reduction in the strength of the overturning is thought to have played a key role in rapid climate change in the past and may have the potential to so in the future. This is the motivation for research conducted in the UK RAPID and US AMOC science programmes. The meeting is a joint initiative between the two programmes, and will explore the scientific understanding of Atlantic variability on a range of time scales, with a main focus of the role of the AMOC.

SCIENCE THEMES

1. What do we know about present and past changes in the AMOC on seasonal to millennial time scales?
2. How does the AMOC influence ocean, atmosphere and terrestrial climate and ecosystems?
3. How will the AMOC change over the next few decades and over the 21st century?
4. Outlook and Challenges.

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Johanna Baehr - University of Hamburg
• Stuart Cunningham - National Oceanography Centre
• Henk Dijkstra - Utrecht University
• Sirpa Häkkinen - NASA GSFC
• Susan Lozier - Duke University
• Jean Lynch-Stieglitz - Georgia Tech
• Jochem Marotzke - Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
• Tony Rosati - NOAA GFDL
• Rowan Sutton - University of Reading
• Tim Woollings - University of Reading