Boers (2021) wrote that, in the last century, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) may have evolved from relatively stable conditions to a point close to a critical transition. The claim is based on different AMOC indices, based on observational sea-surface temperature and salinity data from across the Atlantic Ocean basin. Boers’ conclusions (2021) are not based on systematic observations spanning the last and this century, but on subjective reconstructions of sea surface temperature and salinity, as accurate sea-surface and temperature data are only available over the last few decades. Additionally, the AMOC strength does not only correlate to sea surface temperature and salinity data. His as-sumption that the strength of the AMOC depends on poorly described sea-surface temperature and salinity only is not substantiated. The difficulties of estimating the sea surface temperature (SST) are highlighted in Chan et al. (2019). Even more difficult are the estimations of salinity.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) describes the northward flow of warm, salty water in the upper layers, and the southward flow of colder water in the deep Atlantic layers. AMOC strength estimates at 41°N latitude based on satellite sea surface height (SSH), and ARGO ocean temperature, salinity and velocity, and finally the difference in between the absolute mean sea levels (MSL) of the tide gauges of The Battery, New York, 40.7°N latitude, and Brest, 48.3°N latitude. Results suggest that the AMOC has been minimally reducing but with a positive acceleration since 2002, has been marginally increasing but with a negative acceleration since 1993, and has not been reducing but only oscillating with clear periodicities up 18 years, 27 years and about 60 years since 1856.
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