Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Atlantic Niño is the dominant mode of interannual variability in the Tropical Atlantic with significant impacts on local and remote climate patterns. Despite recent advances in understanding the mechanisms leading to weakened Atlantic Niño variability, its primary causes remain unknown. Here, we use an Earth System Model to show that the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) modulates air-sea feedbacks in the equatorial Atlantic through both atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections. The combination of a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the propagation of oceanic downwelling Kelvin waves due to an AMOC weakening, generated in the subpolar North Atlantic, deepens the eastern thermocline and weakens the equatorial trade winds, leading to a decoupling in air-sea feedbacks. Finally, we show that adding the effect of meltwater in future projections reduces the upwelling feedback strength by 60 ± 6% in 2100, with potential changes in the Atlantic Niño-driven rainfall.
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,590
Funders: National Computational Infrastructure, Australian Government, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, University of New South Wales, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Australian Research Council, National Cancer Institute
OpenAlex ID: W4415958928