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1. Weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation causes the historical North Atlantic Warming Hole

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02403-0  

   Li, Kai-Yuan; Liu, Wei (May 2025, Communications Earth & Environment)

   Abstract Most oceans over the globe have experienced surface warming during the past century, but the subpolar Atlantic is quite otherwise. The sea surface temperature cooling trend to the south of Greenland, known as the North Atlantic Warming Hole, has raised debate over whether it is driven by the slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here we use observations as a benchmark and climate models as a tool to demonstrate that only models simulating a weakened historical Atlantic overturning can broadly reproduce the observed cooling and freshening in the warming hole region. This, in turn, indicates that the realistic Atlantic overturning slowed between 1900 and 2005, at a rate of −1.01 to −2.97 Sv century⁻¹(1 Sv = 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹), according to a sea-surface-temperature-based fingerprint index estimate. Particularly, the Atlantic overturning slowdown causes an oceanic heat transport divergence across the subpolar North Atlantic, which, while partially offset by enhanced ocean heat uptake, results in cooling over the warming hole region. 

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2. Indian Ocean warming as a driver of the North Atlantic warming hole

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18522-5  

   Hu, Shineng; Fedorov, Alexey V. (September 2020, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Over the past century, the subpolar North Atlantic experienced slight cooling or suppressed warming, relative to the background positive temperature trends, often dubbed the North Atlantic warming hole (NAWH). The causes of the NAWH remain under debate. Here we conduct coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations to demonstrate that enhanced Indian Ocean warming, another salient feature of global warming, could increase local rainfall and through teleconnections strengthen surface westerly winds south of Greenland, cooling the subpolar North Atlantic. In decades to follow however, this cooling effect would gradually vanish as the Indian Ocean warming acts to strengthen the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). We argue that the historical NAWH can potentially be explained by such atmospheric mechanisms reliant on surface wind changes, while oceanic mechanisms related to AMOC changes become more important on longer timescales. Thus, explaining the North Atlantic temperature trends and particularly the NAWH requires considering both atmospheric and oceanic mechanisms. 

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3. Decadal SST Variability in the Southeast Indian Ocean and Its Impact on Regional Climate

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0180.1  

   Li, Yuanlong; Han, Weiqing; Zhang, Lei; Wang, Fan (October 2019, Journal of Climate)

   The southeast Indian Ocean (SEIO) exhibits decadal variability in sea surface temperature (SST) with amplitudes of ~0.2–0.3 K and covaries with the central Pacific ( r = −0.63 with Niño-4 index for 1975–2010). In this study, the generation mechanisms of decadal SST variability are explored using an ocean general circulation model (OGCM), and its impact on atmosphere is evaluated using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). OGCM experiments reveal that Pacific forcing through the Indonesian Throughflow explains <20% of the total SST variability, and the contribution of local wind stress is also small. These wind-forced anomalies mainly occur near the Western Australian coast. The majority of SST variability is attributed to surface heat fluxes. The reduced upward turbulent heat flux ( Q T ; latent plus sensible heat flux), owing to decreased wind speed and anomalous warm, moist air advection, is essential for the growth of warm SST anomalies (SSTAs). The warming causes reduction of low cloud cover that increases surface shortwave radiation (SWR) and further promotes the warming. However, the resultant high SST, along with the increased wind speed in the offshore area, enhances the upward Q T and begins to cool the ocean. Warm SSTAs co-occur with cyclonic low-level wind anomalies in the SEIO and enhanced rainfall over Indonesia and northwest Australia. AGCM experiments suggest that although the tropical Pacific SST has strong effects on the SEIO region through atmospheric teleconnection, the cyclonic winds and increased rainfall are mainly caused by the SEIO warming through local air–sea interactions. 

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4. The Cyclonic Mode of Arctic Ocean Circulation

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0190.1  

   Morison, James; Kwok, Ron; Dickinson, Suzanne; Andersen, Roger; Peralta-Ferriz, Cecilia; Morison, David; Rigor, Ignatius; Dewey, Sarah; Guthrie, John (April 2021, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Arctic Ocean surface circulation change should not be viewed as the strength of the anticyclonic Beaufort Gyre. While the Beaufort Gyre is a dominant feature of average Arctic Ocean surface circulation, empirical orthogonal function analysis of dynamic height (1950–89) and satellite altimetry–derived dynamic ocean topography (2004–19) show the primary pattern of variability in its cyclonic mode is dominated by a depression of the sea surface and cyclonic surface circulation on the Russian side of the Arctic Ocean. Changes in surface circulation after Arctic Oscillation (AO) maxima in 1989 and 2007–08 and after an AO minimum in 2010 indicate the cyclonic mode is forced by the AO with a lag of about 1 year. Associated with a one standard deviation increase in the average AO starting in the early 1990s, Arctic Ocean surface circulation underwent a cyclonic shift evidenced by increased spatial-average vorticity. Under increased AO, the cyclonic mode complex also includes increased export of sea ice and near-surface freshwater, a changed path of Eurasian runoff, a freshened Beaufort Sea, and weakened cold halocline layer that insulates sea ice from Atlantic water heat, an impact compounded by increased Atlantic Water inflow and cyclonic circulation at depth. The cyclonic mode’s connection with the AO is important because the AO is a major global scale climate index predicted to increase with global warming. Given the present bias in concentration of in situ measurements in the Beaufort Gyre and Transpolar Drift, a coordinated effort should be made to better observe the cyclonic mode. 

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5. Century-long cooling trend in subpolar North Atlantic forced by atmosphere: an alternative explanation

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06003-4  

   Li, Laifang; Lozier, M. Susan; Li, Feili (October 2021, Climate Dynamics)

   A well-known exception to rising sea surface temperatures (SST) across the globe is the subpolar North Atlantic, where SST has been declining at a rate of 0.39 (± 0.23) K century−1 during the 1900–2017 period. This cold blob has been hypothesized to result from a slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Here, observation-based evidence is used to suggest that local atmospheric forcing can also contribute to the century-long cooling trend. Specifically, a 100-year SST trend simulated by an idealized ocean model forced by historical atmospheric forcing over the cold blob region matches 92% (± 77%) of the observed cooling trend. The data-driven simulations suggest that 54% (± 77%) of the observed cooling trend is the direct result of increased heat loss from the ocean induced by the overlying atmosphere, while the remaining 38% is due to strengthened local convection. An analysis of surface wind eddy kinetic energy suggests that the atmosphere-induced cooling may be linked to a northward migration of the jet stream, which exposes the subpolar North Atlantic to intensified storminess. 

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