What is in news : AMOC is getting weaker due to increase in global temperature

What is AMOC :

• Large system of ocean currents
• Atlantic branch of the ocean conveyor belt or Thermohaline circulation (THC), and distributes heat and nutrients throughout the world’s ocean basins
• Carries warm surface waters from the tropics towards the Northern Hemisphere, where it cools and sinks
• Returns to the tropics and then to the South Atlantic as a bottom current
• From there it is distributed to all ocean basins via the Antarctic circumpolar current

Has it been weakened before : AMOC and THC strength has always been fluctuating, mainly if you look at the late Pleistocene time period (last 1 million years). The extreme glacial stages have seen weaker circulation and slowdown in AMOC, while the glacial terminations have shown a stronger AMOC and circulation

What are the implications :

• Gulf Stream in Europe will be very cold
• Cool the northern hemisphere
• Decrease rainfall over Europe
• Prominent cooling over the northern North Atlantic and neighbouring areas, sea ice increases over the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian seas and to the south of Greenland Significant southward rain-belt migration over the tropical Atlantic