Gulf Stream system of warm currents in the sowing. h. Atlantic Ocean, extending over 10 thousand km from the Florida peninsula to the Spitsbergen islands and New Earth. Discovered by Spanish navigators at the beginning of the 16th century. and was called the Florida Current. The name Gulf Stream in 1722 was proposed by B. Franklin. Originates in the south. h. Florida Ave. as a result of a strong surge of trade winds of water into the Gulf of Mexico. through the Yucatan Strait. When entering the ocean, the current capacity is 2160 km per day, which is 20 times higher than the flow of all the rivers of the globe. Going out into the ocean, it connects with the Antilles current and at 38 ° N.l. its power more than triples. Further, G. moves at a speed of 6-10 km / h to the north along the Atlantic coast of the North. America to Bol. Newfoundland Bank, outside of which is called the North Atlantic Current. The width of the stream from the south to the north increases from 75 to 200 km, the thickness is 700-800 m, the water temperature on the surface decreases from 24-28 to 10-20 °C. G. has a huge impact on the nature of the sowing. part of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent part of the North. the Arctic Ocean, as well as the climate of Europe, creating very mild climatic conditions in temperate and arctic latitudes.
Photo: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL
The main branch of this current originates in the Gulf of Mexico (hence its name, meaning in translation from in English"current from the bay") and penetrates into the Atlantic through the Strait of Florida; further, the current deviates to the north by the Great Bahama Bank, an underwater platform located southeast of the Florida Peninsula.
Leaving the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream carries large accumulations of floating algae of the genus Sargassum and different types thermophilic fish (including flying ones). Off the east coast of Florida, the boundaries of the Gulf Stream are clear, especially the western one. The sparkling blue of this current contrasts sharply with the greenish-gray colder waters of the North Atlantic.
The current itself is not just a homogeneous mass of a moving ribbon of water. It consists of several streams having approximately the same direction. Near its eastern edge there are numerous right-twisting eddies; some of them are even completely separated from the main stream.
Near the Great Bahama Bank, the Gulf Stream receives a branch of the Northern Equatorial Current and follows in general parallel to the east coast of the United States, but at a small distance from it. It is with the warm waters of this current that mild winter in the Bermuda Islands. Near Cape Hatteras (North Carolina coast), the Gulf Stream turns to the northeast and heads towards the Great Bank of Newfoundland. Here it meets the cold Labrador Current and also comes into contact with colder air coming from the north. As a result, fogs are almost constantly observed in this area. From the Great Newfoundland Bank, the Gulf Stream moves eastward to the shores of Europe (this part of it is called the course of the West Winds). Approximately in the middle of the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream divides into two currents. One of them follows further east to the shores of Europe, and then, turning south, forms the Canary Current, the other, called the North Atlantic Current, gradually deviates to the left and continues to move to the northeast. This current passes along the western coast of the British Isles, where a branch again separates from it, heading west to the southern coast of Iceland, the Irminger Current. Another part of the North Atlantic Current, the Norwegian Current, follows the coast of Norway.
Ideas about the flow, popular in our time, developed in the last century. The Gulf Stream has been compared to a river changing its position (meandering) in the ocean. The studies that existed at that time in this part of the ocean made it possible to attribute the current to geostrophic (i.e., formed by the balance of only two forces: the pressure gradient on the water and the Coriolis force) currents. On the surface of the ocean, the Gulf Stream has a width of 70-100 km, and a depth from the surface of about 500 m.
The current passes along the hydrofront - the boundary between cold (and less saline) slope water in the west and north and warm (and more saline) water of the Sargasso Sea in the east and south, and the Gulf Stream itself meanders within a distance of about 500 km (Fig. 2, 3) - along the hydrofront area, leading to the formation of warm (to the left of the jet) and cold (to the right of it) eddies with a speed of up to 1.5 m/s with a diameter of up to 400 km. This information about the dynamics of the Gulf Stream waters was obtained mainly by analyzing data on the temperature and salinity of the water, i.e. thermohaline parameters.
However, within the framework of existing ideas about the nature of the Gulf Stream, it is impossible to explain why, outside the current, masses of water (its bed) move in the opposite direction, why the current pulsates, stops, and then picks up speed again, and after 10-20 days the situation repeats. And why did numerous attempts to reproduce these properties on the model fail? We have attempted to answer some of these questions using data from direct current measurements.
Not so long ago, a new device appeared in the hands of oceanologists. This is a drifter - a float with an antenna that allows you to monitor the movement of water, and from here determine the speed and direction of the current, in this case at a horizon of 15 m. Information about the position of the drifter in the ocean is transmitted via satellite to the Data Collection Center. More than 400 drifters have been launched in the Gulf Stream area and in some proximity to it in the last 10 years, each of which provided information on average for a year and a half. As a result of this, a huge amount of material was collected about the currents and temperature of the water, on the basis of which we conducted our own analysis of the dynamics of the Gulf Stream and tried to understand its nature.
A region of the ocean stands out, in which the speed is much higher. Let us consider this region as the Gulf Stream.
The current velocities here decrease from south to north, from 1 to 0.5 m/s. In the southern part, the Gulf Stream has a width of about 100 km, and in the northern part - more than 300 km. From more detailed information presented in Figs. 5, 6, it follows that the currents of the Gulf Stream are quite stable in direction, at least in its main part, south of 38°N
Let us now consider the behavior of currents in the Gulf Stream. To do this, we analyze a typical Gulf Stream track and the course of the current velocity module (Fig. 7, below). It can be stated that within the Gulf Stream, especially its southern part, drifters, and hence the masses of water, move predominantly unidirectionally and along the isobaths, or rather along the shelf edge. In this case, the water flow does not move strictly along the isobaths, but makes small oscillations to the right - to the left in relation to the movement of the main water flow. Such fluctuations are small in the part of the Gulf Stream south of 38°N. and significant to the north of it. With such a predominantly unidirectional movement of the water flow, the velocity pulsates, reaching values close to zero in the minima. Sometimes the flow of water moves in the opposite direction, although weakly. What is the reason and force that makes the waters behave in this way: stop, and then pick up speed and stop again, etc., i.e. pulsate in time and space? This behavior of currents clearly contradicts the ideas about them as thermohaline, geostrophic.
One gets the impression that a powerful stream of water in the form of a jet enters the ocean from the Gulf of Mexico through the Strait of Florida, which forms the Gulf Stream. Previously, this is exactly what was considered. Hence the current got its name: Gulf Stream, which in English means - the river of the Gulf (Mexican) or the stream of the Gulf. However, this impression is deceptive. Later it was found that the Gulf Stream is mainly formed by the mentioned slope cold waters from the north and the warm waters of the Sargasso Sea from the south, but not by the Gulf of Mexico, from where water practically does not come. It also turned out that in the middle part of the Gulf Stream, the flow of water is much greater than in the southern part, in the Strait of Florida (and these facts are in no way consistent with the thermohaline and geostrophic nature of the current). It is no coincidence that they began to talk about the Gulf Stream not as a river flowing out of the bay, but as a current carrying its waters from the Florida Peninsula.
The Gulf Stream is a large sea current in the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to its warm waters, European states located on the shores of the ocean have a milder climate than without it.
It would seem that where does the water and air have to do with it, and how is the influence of the Gulf Stream on Europe so great? The answer is very simple: the warm waters of the current heat the air, which reaches the coast of Eurasia with the wind, preventing the countries located on the continent from freezing.
The power of the current is really impressive. The water flow per second is more than in all the rivers of the planet and amounts to 50 million cubic meters. m. There is as much heat in the Gulf Stream as 1 million nuclear power plants would emit.
The Gulf Stream receives its warm water supply from the Gulf of Mexico and carries it along the coast. North America almost to Canada, where it turns into the open ocean, heading towards Europe. Wasting a colossal supply of heat along the way, the current still brings so much energy to the mainland that the tundra has not formed in Europe. And I should have, because above 60 degrees north latitude, reindeer live in other places on the planet, and in Europe, green meadows live at the same latitude.
The biological productivity of the Gulf Stream has not been the subject of special studies. The biomass of plankton in the Gulf Stream zone is also low. The Gulf Stream area cannot be a feeding area for either boreal or subtropical fish, since the former avoid the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, while the latter find favorable conditions in the area of the frontal zones of the Gulf Stream and the waters of the Atlantic.
The importance of the Gulf Stream is its participation in the "breeding" of the largest commercial species of fish and zooplankton. Faced with cold waters in the north of the ocean, the current creates the so-called "banks", which are perfect place existence of flora and fauna. In such places, fishing for commercial fish flourishes: herring, cod, etc. The development of small crustaceans forms "feeding fields" for many cetaceans that arrange annual migrations here.
The Gulf Stream (from the English gulf stream - a current from the bay) is called a warm ocean current in the Atlantic Ocean. It carries heated water masses from indian ocean and south Atlantic to the northwestern coast of Europe. The continuation of the Gulf Stream is the North Atlantic Current, which carries a stream cooled in the north to the Southern Hemisphere. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, the countries of Europe adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean have a milder climate compared to regions lying on the same geographical latitude. Over the North Atlantic, westerly winds take heat from warm water masses and are transferred to Europe.As a result of this natural thermal circuit, the deviations of air temperature from average latitude values in January reach 15-20 °C in Norway, and more than 11 °C in Murmansk. The volume of water carried by the Gulf Stream is 50 million cubic meters every second (!), Which is 20 times more than the flow of all the rivers on the planet combined. Thermal power of this current is approximately 1.4×1015 watts.
Several factors are involved in the emergence and direction of the Gulf Stream. Among them, the most significant are atmospheric thermal circulation and the Coriolis force resulting from the rotation of the Earth. The forerunner of the Gulf Stream, the Yucatan Current, follows from caribbean to the Gulf of Mexico through the strait between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula. There, the flow is divided into two parts - one goes along the circular flow of the bay, and the second forms the Florida current and goes through an even narrower strait between Cuba and Florida, and then exits into the Atlantic Ocean. The water masses of the Florida Current, heated in the Gulf of Mexico, are connected near Bahamas with the Antilles current and eventually form the Gulf Stream. This current is directed in a narrow stream along the coast of North America. At the level of North Carolina, the Gulf Stream moves away from coastal zone and turns into the open ocean. About 1500 km further, it collides with the oncoming cold Labrador Current, which deflects it even more east towards Europe. An additional factor deflection to the east favors and the Coriolis force. On the way to Europe, some of the heat is lost due to evaporation, cooling, and numerous side branches that reduce the main flow, but enough heat still comes to Europe to create a mild climate in it that does not correspond to the latitudes. The continuation of the Gulf Stream to the northeast of the Great Newfoundland Bank is the North Atlantic Current. Average consumption water in the Florida Strait - 25 million m 3 / s.
The slowdown of the Gulf Stream around 1300 was one of the main causes of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Now the Gulf Stream for Europe and the USA is a generous gift of nature to their economies and populations. But not everything looks so rosy in the near future. The northern hemisphere weather kitchen is located in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. The Gulf Stream plays the role of a heating system in it, it is also called the “stove of Europe”. The colder and denser Labrador current "dives" under the warmer and lighter current of the Gulf Stream, without preventing it from heating Europe. Then the Labrador Current “emerges” off the coast of Spain already under the name of the cold Canary Current, crosses the Atlantic, reaches the Caribbean Sea, heats up and already under the name of the Gulf Stream rushes back to the North without hindrance. Thus, it is the density of water in the Labrador Current that is the key factor in the current temperature balance. The density of the waters of the Labrador Current is only 0.1% higher than the density of the waters of the Gulf Stream. As a result, the Barents Sea does not freeze all year round, and in Europe palm trees grow and houses with cardboard walls are built. If suddenly the Labrador Current becomes equal in density to the Gulf Stream, then it will rise closer to the surface of the ocean and block its movement to the north. All arrived. We get a diagram of the currents of the ice age. The Gulf Stream warms Spain instead of Great Britain, and the cold Labrador Current freezes Europe.
A study of the ice in Greenland shows that climate change processes can occur within three to ten years. The air temperature in Europe in these few years will be equal to the Siberian one. Even now, the strength of the winter current of the Gulf Stream towards Europe is significantly weakening (according to some sources, by 30%). Probably abnormally cold winters recent years in Europe, a direct consequence of this.
This process was accelerated by the oil platform accident in April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. Now giant slicks of oil have been discovered in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has been pouring out for several months from a well drilled by BP at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. To reduce the gigantic fines calculated by the size of the spot on the surface, BP managed to hide most oil. With the help of binding reagents, she was... lowered to the bottom. As a result, a blood clot formed in the water column, as if in a blood vessel, slowing down the normal circulation of water.
According to the latest satellite data, the North Atlantic Current no longer exists in its former form. Along with it, the Norwegian Current also disappeared. The shutdown of the Gulf Stream was first reported in August 2010 by Dr. Zangari, a theoretical physicist from Italy. For several years he has been collaborating with a group of scientists monitoring the Gulf of Mexico. According to him, "... great amount oil, constantly expanding in volume, covers such vast areas that it has a serious impact on the entire system of thermoregulation of the planet by destroying the boundary layers of the warm water flow. The pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico ceased to exist a month ago, the latest satellite data clearly show that the North Atlantic Current is not present now, and the Gulf Stream is beginning to break apart 250 km from the coast of North Carolina. The situation of warm waters flowing over cooler waters has a great effect not only on the ocean, but also on the upper atmosphere up to seven miles high. The absence of this usual phenomenon in the eastern part of the North Atlantic disrupted the normal course of atmospheric flows this summer. The result was unheard-of high temperatures in Moscow (up to 40C), droughts and floods in Central Europe, and massive floods in China, Pakistan and other Asian countries.”
The average water temperature in the north of the Gulf Stream has dropped by 10 degrees. Belt conveyor crashed separate sections and stopped carrying warm water to Europe. Dr. Zangari claims, "They killed the global climate pacemaker on the planet."
The strongest cold in the last 100 years came last winter to Europe. Both airports were temporarily closed, freezing winter rains hit Moscow and the region. What can we expect next winter?
The Gulf Stream has stopped: fact or fiction?
Av.Olga Skidan
Date:May 28, 2013
In 2010, the world community was shocked by the news that a new Ice Age could begin in the near future. Italian physicist Gianluigi Zangari, an employee of the Frascati National Institute of Nuclear Physics, made a sensational statement: "The Gulf Stream has stopped!"
The scientist came to such conclusions by analyzing the observational data obtained from satellites for atmospheric and oceanic phenomena in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to an Italian scientist, the Gulf Stream stopped as a result of a large-scale environmental tragedy in this area. For several months, British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon well has been leaking crude oil into the waters of the bay. In total, about two hundred million gallons of substance poured out, which formed a kind of "oil volcano" at the bottom. The management of the BP concern and American authorities attempted to cover up this fact by dumping two million gallons of Corexit solvent and vast amounts of other dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico to suppress hydrocarbons. It was not possible to neutralize the consequences of the disaster, it was only possible to hide the true extent of the damage - part of the bay was cleaned from the oil film, but it is impossible to remove oil from a great depth. And the most irreparable consequence of an oil leak is that temperature, viscosity and salinity have changed. sea water, as a result of which the boundaries between the layers of cold and warm water collapsed, because of this, the undercurrents slowed down, and in some places the Gulf Stream stopped altogether. All this prompted Zangari to make such a statement.
What is Gulfstream? This is the main warm current of the Earth, which forms the weather conditions in the territories adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. He does Scandinavian countries habitable and maintains a warm climate in European countries. And if the Gulf Stream has stopped, then we are waiting for the onset of the Ice Age. First of all, England and Ireland, the northern states of America and Canada will be covered with ice, then a sharp cooling will cover North America, Europe and Asia. People will be forced to move to more warm places. Cold, migration, crop failure and, as a result, famine will lead to the extinction of about two-thirds of all mankind. 
In 2010, the scientist did not believe in the self-healing of the current, as he suspected that the oil leak was continuing. But after some time, satellite images were received that did not confirm the fact that the Gulf Stream had stopped. Photographs from outer space showed that the North Atlantic Current was again carrying its warm waters along its usual route.
So what, the world's global catastrophe is cancelled? There is no definite answer to this question. Scientists say that the Gulf Stream stopped temporarily for several days, a similar situation was already in 2004, and no negative consequences for the Earth then did not follow. But supporters of the global conspiracy theory argue that all images of the Gulf of Mexico received from satellites after 2010 are fake. The climate is changing, but gradually, because the waters of the Gulf Stream have not yet cooled completely, and there are several years before the global cooling.
The Gulf Stream
In Western Europe, as well as on the east coast of the United States, the climate is quite mild. So on the coast of Florida, the average water temperature is very rarely below 22 ° Celsius. It's in winter months. In summer, the air heats up to 36°-39° Celsius with humidity reaching 100%. Such temperature regime extends far to the east and north. It covers the states: Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, and North and South Carolina.
All these administrative entities lie in the humid subtropical climate, where summer average daily temperature does not fall below 25° Celsius, and in the winter months it drops to 0° Celsius very rarely.
If we take Western Europe, then the Iberian, Apennine and Balkan Peninsulas, as well as the entire southern part of France, are located in the subtropical zone. The summer temperature in it fluctuates between 26°-28° Celsius. IN winter period these figures drop to 2°-5° Celsius, but almost never reach 0°.
In Scandinavia, the average winter temperature ranges from minus 4° to 2° Celsius. In the summer months it rises to 8°-14°. That is, even in northern regions the climate is quite acceptable and suitable for comfortable living.
The Gulf Stream
This temperature grace takes place in a vast region for a reason. It is directly connected with the Gulf Stream ocean current. It is he who forms the climate and gives people the opportunity to enjoy warm weather almost all year round.
The Gulf Stream is a whole system of warm currents in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Its total length covers a distance of 10 thousand kilometers from the sultry coast of Florida to the ice-covered islands of Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya. Huge masses waters begin their movement in the Strait of Florida. Their volume reaches 25 million cubic meters per second.
The Gulf Stream moves slowly and majestically along the east coast of North America and crosses 40°N. sh. Near the island of Newfoundland, it meets the Labrador Current. The latter carries cold waters to the south and causes warm water flows to turn east.
After such a collision, the Gulf Stream splits into two currents. One rushes north and turns into the North Atlantic Current. It is this that forms the climate in Western Europe. The remaining mass reaches the coast of Spain and turns south. Off the coast of Africa, it meets the North Tradewind Current and deviates west, ending its journey in the Sargasso Sea, from which it is within easy reach of the Gulf of Mexico. Then the cycle of huge masses of water is repeated.
This has been going on for thousands of years. Sometimes a mighty warm current weakens, slows down, reduces heat transfer, and then cold falls to the ground. An example of this is the Little Ice Age. Europeans observed it in the XIV-XIX centuries. Every heat-loving inhabitant of Europe has experienced on his own skin what a real frosty snowy winter is.
True, before that, in the VIII-XIII centuries, there was a noticeable warming. In other words, the Gulf Stream was gaining strength and giving off a very large amount of heat into the atmosphere. Accordingly, on the lands of the European continent, the weather was very warm, and snowy cold winters have not been observed for centuries.
Today, the mighty warm currents of water also affect the climate as they did in former times. Nothing has changed under the sun and the laws of nature have remained the same. That's just a man in his technical progress walked very far. His relentless activity triggered the Greenhouse Effect.
The result was the melting of the ice of Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. Huge masses of fresh water poured into salt water and headed south. Today, this situation is already beginning to affect the mighty warm current. Some experts predict that the Gulf Stream will soon stop, as it will not be able to cope with the influx of alien waters. This will entail a sharp cooling in Western Europe and on the east coast of North America.
The situation was aggravated by the largest accident at the Tiber oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. Under water in the bowels of the earth, geologists have found huge reserves of oil, estimated at 1.8 billion tons. Experts drilled a well, the depth of which was 10,680 meters. Of these, 1259 meters were in the ocean water column. In April 2010 on oil platform a fire broke out. It blazed for two days and claimed the lives of 11 people. But it was, though tragic, but a prelude to what happened after that.
The burnt platform sank, and oil began to flow out of the well into the open ocean. According to official sources, 700 tons of oil per day entered the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. However, independent experts named a different figure - 13.5 thousand tons per day.
The oil film, huge in its area, fettered the movement of Atlantic waters, and this, accordingly, began to negatively affect heat transfer. Hence there was a violation in the circulation of the air currents of the Atlantic. They no longer had the strength to move east and form the usual mild climate there.
The result was a terrible heat wave in Eastern Europe in the summer of 2010, when the air temperature rose to 45° Celsius. provoked a similar wind out North Africa. They, not meeting any resistance on their way, brought a hot and dry cyclone to the north. He hovered over a vast territory and stayed above it for almost two months, destroying all life.
At the same time, terrible floods shook Western Europe, as the heavy, moisture-filled clouds coming from the Atlantic did not have enough strength to break through the dry and hot front. They were forced to dump tons of water on the ground. All this provoked a sharp rise in the level of rivers and, as a result, various disasters and human tragedy.
What are the immediate prospects, and what awaits old Europe in the near future? Experts say that cardinal climate change will begin to be felt as early as 2015. Western Europe is waiting for a cooling and rising sea levels. This will provoke the impoverishment of the middle class, as it cash invested in real estate, which will plummet in value.
This will create political and social tensions in all sectors of society. The consequences of this can be the most tragic. It is simply impossible to predict something specific, since there are many scenarios for the development of events. One thing is clear: hard times are coming.
The current of the Gulf Stream, today, thanks to global warming and the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, has practically closed in a ring and does not provide sufficient thermal energy to the North Atlantic Current. Accordingly, the air flow is disturbed. Over the European territory, completely different winds begin to dominate. The usual climatic balance is disturbed - this is already noticeable with a simple eye.
IN similar situation anyone can feel a sense of anxiety and hopelessness. Of course, not for the fate of hundreds of millions of people, since this is too vague and unclear, but for the specific fate of their relatives and friends. But to despair, and even more so to panic, is premature. How it will actually be - no one knows.
The future is full of surprises. It is entirely possible that global warming is not global warming at all. This is a normal rise in temperatures within the climate cycle. Its duration is 60 years. That is, for six decades the temperature on the planet has been steadily increasing, and for the next 60 years it is slowly decreasing. The beginning of the last cycle dates back to the end of 1979. It turns out that half of the way has already been passed and only 30 years are left to endure.
The Gulf Stream is too powerful a stream of water to simply change direction or disappear like that. There may be some failures and deviations, but they will never turn into global and irreversible processes. There are simply no prerequisites for this. At least not today.
(as it is, in particular, noted on geographical maps). In a broad sense, the Gulf Stream is often called a system of warm currents in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to the Scandinavian Peninsula, Svalbard, the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean
The Gulf Stream is a powerful jet stream 70-90 km wide, propagating from maximum speed up to several meters per second in the upper layer of the ocean, rapidly decreasing with depth (up to 10–20 cm/s at depths of 1000–1500 m). Full consumption water in the current is of the order of 0.1 km³ / s. The flow of water by the Gulf Stream is about 50 million cubic meters of water every second, which is 20 times more than the flow of all the rivers of the world combined.
On the way to Europe, the Gulf Stream loses most of its energy due to evaporation, cooling, and numerous side branches that reduce the main flow, however, it still delivers enough heat to Europe to create a mild climate unusual for its latitudes.
Disruption of the Gulf Stream
Flow instability
Hypothesis about the relationship of climate change with disruption of the Gulf Stream
Taking into account the impact of the Gulf Stream on the climate, it is assumed that in the short-term historical perspective, a climatic catastrophe is possible due to the disruption of the current. It has long been one of Hollywood's favorite themes that, due to global warming and the melting of the northern glaciers, the waters are desalinated, and since the Gulf Stream is formed by the interaction of salt and fresh water, Europe stops heating and the ice age begins (see the film The Day After Tomorrow).
Historical data
In favor of the fundamental possibility of such a catastrophe, data are given on catastrophic climate changes that occurred on our planet earlier. Including the available evidence of the Little Ice Age or data from the analysis of the Greenland ice.
global warming
It is also believed that the disruption of the current may be the result of global warming. Since the dynamics of the current is significantly affected by the salinity of ocean water, which decreases due to the melting of ice. It is also possible the effect of a decreasing temperature difference between the pole and the equator with increasing
Validity of the hypothesis
Currently, there are no sufficiently substantiated data on the influence of the above factors on the climate. There are also opposite opinions. In particular, according to Dr. geographical sciences, oceanologist Bondarenko A. L., “The operation mode of the Gulf Stream will not change”. This is argued by the fact that the actual transfer of water does not occur, that is, the current is a Rossby wave. Therefore, no sudden and catastrophic changes in the climate of Europe will occur.
The journal Nature has published the results of a study by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Research on Climate Change and its Effects, led by professor of ocean physics Stefan Ramstorff. The main conclusion of this study is that the circulation of water in the oceans is slowing down and that one of the consequences of this may be a slowing down of the Gulf Stream. This in turn will lead to many disasters. Cold winters in Europe and a severe rise in water levels that will threaten major coastal cities on the US East Coast, such as New York and Boston. According to their data, the Gulf Stream, which brings a mild climate to northern Europe and favorable conditions for residents of the southeastern United States, is slowing down at the fastest rate in the last 1,000 years.
Professor Stefan Ramstorf: “It is immediately apparent that one particular area in the North Atlantic has been cooling for the last hundred years, while the rest of the world has been warming. We have now found compelling evidence that the global pipeline has indeed been weakening over the last hundred years, especially since 1970.”
The data obtained by scientists confirms that as global temperatures rise due to climate change, areas that are warmed by the Gulf Stream show a drop in temperature, especially in winter. An influx of warm water from the equator that travels across the Gulf of Mexico, across the ocean and then up the west side of Britain and Norway contributes to the warm climate in Northern Europe. It does winter conditions in much of northern Europe are considerably milder than they would normally be, protecting these regions from a large number snow and ice during the winter months.
Now, researchers have found that the water in the North Atlantic Ocean is colder than previously predicted by computer models. According to their calculations, between 1900 and 1970, 8,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water entered the Atlantic Ocean from Greenland. In addition, the same source "provided" an additional 13,000 cubic kilometers between 1970 and 2000. This fresh water is less dense than the salty ocean and tends to float on the surface, upsetting the balance of the huge current.
In the 1990s, circulation began to recover, but the recovery was temporary. Now there is a new weakening, possibly due to the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
IN this moment circulation is weaker by 15-20% than one or two decades ago. At first glance, this is not so much. But on the other hand, scientists say, there has not been anything like this on Earth for at least 1100 years, since about 900. It is also worrying that the weakening of the circulation is happening faster than the pace predicted by scientists.
Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age around 1300 was due precisely to the slowing down of the Gulf Stream. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real ecological catastrophe. After traditionally warm summer 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers 1312-1315. Heavy rains and unusually harsh winters have led to the death of several crops and the freezing of orchards in England, Scotland, northern France and Germany. Viticulture and wine production ceased in Scotland and northern Germany. Winter frosts began to hit even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and J. Boccaccio recorded that in the XIV century. snow often fell in Italy.
In 2009-10, American scientists have already recorded a sudden rise in the water level in the Atlantic off the east coast of America by 10 cm. Then the current weakening of the circulation was just beginning. In case of its sharp weakening, the water level can rise by 1 meter. Moreover, we are talking only about the increase due to the weakening of circulation. To this meter should be added the rise of water, which is expected from global warming.
Scientists have calculated that the warm Gulf Stream is so powerful that it carries more water than all the rivers of the planet combined. Despite all its power, it is only one, albeit a major component of the global thermohaline process, i.e. temperature-salty, water circulation. Its key components are in the North Atlantic, where the Gulf Stream flows. Therefore, it plays such an important role in shaping the climate on the planet.
The Gulf Stream carries warm water north to colder waters. At the Great Newfoundland Bank, it passes into the North Atlantic Current, which affects the weather in Europe. This current moves further north until the cold waters with a high salt content go to great depth due to its increased density. Then it moves at great depths in the opposite direction, to the south. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current play a decisive role in shaping the climate, because they carry warm water to the north, and cold water to the south, to the tropics, i.e. constantly stirs water between ocean basins.
If too much ice melts in the North Atlantic, say Greenland, desalination occurs. cold salty water. Reducing the salt content of water reduces its density and it rises to the surface.
This process can slow down and eventually even stop the thermohaline circulation. What can happen in this case, director Roland Emmerich tried to show in the science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow (2004). In his version, a new ice age has begun on Earth, which provoked catastrophes and led to chaos on a planetary scale.
Scientists reassure: if this happens, it will not be very soon. However, global warming is indeed slowing down the circulation. One of the consequences, Stefan Ramstorff notes, could be a rise in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States and much colder winters in Europe.