The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is an important ocean current due to its role in moving heat, freshwater, and carbon through the climate system. Changes in the strength of the AMOC on a range of time-scales are hypothesised to be an important driver of regional and global climate. AMOC is expected to weaken due to climate change. However, there is evidence based indirect measures of AMOC (or AMOC “fingerprints”) that suggests AMOC has already weakened significantly and could be nearing a potential tipping point. However, there are many uncertainties related to AMOC “finger-prints” and there are many questions regarding the physical processes shaping the simulated diversity in AMOC response to greenhouse gas forcing.
The post-holder will use coupled model simulations and observations to better understand whether the AMOC has already changed, and how it might change in the future. In particular, they will use high-resolution coupled climate models to explore the sensitivity of AMOC “finger-prints” to model resolution and to understand the sensitivity of AMOC to greenhouse gases. They will also explore the physical processes leading to forced changes in AMOC and any potential threshold behaviour or irreversibility, including a particular focus on how freshwater fluxes from ice sheets modifies that behaviour.
The position is funded as part of the European EPOC (https://www.epoc-eu.org/), TipESM (https://www.tipesm.eu/) and OptimESM (https://optimesm-he.eu/) projects.
https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetail?JobId=24230