NORTH ATLANTIC ‘ACHILLES HEEL’ LETS UPPER ATMOSPHERE AFFECT
THE ABYSS
A University of Utah study suggests something amazing:
Periodic changes in winds 15 to 30 miles high in the stratosphere influence the
seas by striking a vulnerable “Achilles heel” in the North Atlantic and
changing mile-deep ocean circulation patterns, which in turn affect Earth’s
climate.
“We found evidence that what happens in the stratosphere
matters for the ocean circulation and therefore for climate,” says Thomas Reichler,
senior author of the study published online Sunday, Sept. 23 in the journal
Nature Geoscience.