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Abrupt Climate Change
The majority of the research and debates on likely weather modify have targeted within the ongoing buildup of industrial greenhouse gases within the atmosphere as well as a gradual increase in international temperatures. But latest and rapidly advancing proof demonstrates that Earth's local weather repeatedly has shifted considerably and in time spans as short as being a ten years. And abrupt environment alter might be a lot more probably sooner or later.
WHOI Highlighted StoriesJanuary 9, 2009
Ocean Conveyor's 'Pump' Switches Back again On
The sinking of cold waters in the North Atlantic Ocean, which helps power world-wide ocean circulation, had mostly stalled since the mid-1990s, as being the world warmed. To your surprise of researchers, it revved up once more final winter—displaying once yet again just how complex the interactions between air, ocean, and ice really are.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 5, 2007
Sunspots, Sea Changes, and Climate Shifts
Sometimes, clues to environmental conditions in Earth's past tell conflicting stories and point to competing mechanisms for change.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
September 6 Tiffany Alvord, 2007
Interrogating the 'Great Ocean Conveyor'
The Greenland-Scotland Ridge stretches across the North Atlantic Ocean
seafloor like a checkpoint regulating the two-way flow of ocean currents between
the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean to the north and the main body of
the Atlantic for the south.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 16, 2006
The Once and Potential Circulation in the Ocean
Did changes in ocean circulation play a role in melting the vast ice sheets that covered North America and Europe during the very last ice age? Could worldwide warming cause ocean circulation changes that lead to dramatic environment changes sooner or later?
Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 23, 2006
Is Worldwide Warming Changing the Arctic?
In the Arctic, the air Tiffany, sea ice, and underlying ocean all interact in a delicately balanced system. Four ambitious Arctic projects are pulling back again the icy veil that shrouds our understanding of the Arctic Ocean’s role in our local weather system. (First of a five-part series.)
Source: Oceanus Magazine
June 1, 2004
What's After the Day After Tomorrow?
A science perspective on the science fiction movie.
June 1, 2004
Common Misconceptions about Abrupt Climate Change
Several decades of scientific research have yielded
significant advances in understanding the ocean's role in regulating
Earth's environment. This summary covers some in the major points about
abrupt climate change that are often misunderstood.
February 17, 2006
An Ocean Warmer Than a Hot Tub
New evidence from ancient seafloor sediments suggests that current environment forecasting models may possibly underestimate long term ocean warming caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
November 1 Charms Pandora, 2003
A River Runs Through It
In the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, along the edge from the U.S. continental shelf Tiffany Rings, some of the most important currents inside the earth are flowing.
February 10, 2003
Abrupt Climate Change: Should We Be Worried?
A Globe Economic Forum white paper by WHOI President and Director Robert Gagosian presented in Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2003
February 10, 2003
Are We within the Brink of a 'New Little Ice Age?'
The authors discuss the paradox that world-wide warming could, counterintuitively, instigate a new ‘Little Ice Age’ in the northern hemisphere.
April 18, 2002
The Heat Before the Cold
A New York Times Op-Ed by WHOI Scientist Terrence Joyce
December 1, 1996
Sedimentary Record Yields Several Centuries of Data
Natural climate changes like the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period are of interest for a few reasons. First, they occur on ten years to century time scales, a gray zone inside the spectrum of climate modify. Accurate instrumental data do not extend back far enough to document the beginning of these events, and historical data are often of questionable accuracy and are not widespread geographically.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
WHOI News ReleasesDecember 7, 2005
Fine-tuning the Steps within the Intricate Local weather Alter Dance
New scientific findings are strengthening the case that rapid climate modify could be related to how vigorously ocean currents move heat between low and high latitude.
Source: Media Relations
June 16, 2005
How Much Excess Fresh Water Was Added to your North Atlantic in Recent Decades?
Continued Freshening of the North Atlantic Could Slow the Conveyor within the 21st Century
Source: Media Relations
April 21, 2004
Rate of Ocean Circulation Directly Linked to Abrupt Environment Alter in North Atlantic Region
Source: Media Relations
May 28 Pandora Bijoux, 2004
Tropical Plants Help Identify Lags Between Abrupt Local weather and Vegetation Shifts in Different Parts of the World
Clues to the timing and cause of abrupt local weather changes in the past may lie in ocean floor sediments, according to a study by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Source: Media Relations
December 17, 2003
New Study Reports Large-scale Salinity Changes inside the Oceans
Source: Media Relations
Testimonies & BriefingsSeptember 20, 2004
Bigger Hurricanes: A Consequence of Environment Modify?
Inside the wake of three destructive hurricanes that pummeled Florida and Caribbean islands this fall, WHOI Research Specialist Ruth Curry (PO) flew to Washington DC on September 20 to brief members of Congress on extreme weather events and local weather instability.
May 6, 2004
Testimony to your Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Former OCCI Director, William Curry, describes changes inside the ocean that have been detected in only the last two years and discusses possible ocean and environment changes that might occur later on if the planet continues to warm.
July 18, 2000
The Ocean's Role in Climate
Testimony towards the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation from WHOI scientist Raymond W. Schmitt
Research Projects
Assessing Rapid Climate Change during the previous Intergracial with a new approach to Sea Level Reconstruction
Bill Curry and William Thompson Ocean and Environment Modify Institute funded research.
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Measuring the Freshwater Flux through Hudson Strait
Fiammetta Straneo
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WHOI Researchers, Labs, and Groups
Ruth Curry
Physical Oceanography
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William Curry
Geology and Geophysics
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Terrence Joyce
Physical Oceanography
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Lloyd Keigwin
Geology & Geophysics
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Jerry McManus
Geology & Geophysics
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Delia Oppo
Geology & Geophysics
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Raymond Schmitt
Physical Oceanography
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Fiammetta Straneo
Physical Oceanography
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TechnologyJanuary 31, 2007
Reaching Up Into Perilous, Icy Waters
A new technology gives experts the ability to investigate ice-infested Arctic Ocean surface waters that help prevent sea ice from melting.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
January 26, 2007
A Mooring Built to Survive the Irminger Sea
The experiment was to build a moored buoy that could withstand fierce winter months winds and waves in a climatically strategic, but decidedly hostile Tiffany Necklace, part of the ocean.
Source: Oceanus Magazine
April 15 Tiffany Jewellery Uk, 2005
New Coral Dating Technique Will help Resolve Changes in Sea Level Rise inside the Past
Corals from Papua New Guinea and Barbados indicate that changes in sea level, one of the key indexes for worldwide local weather modify, could have been far more frequent inside the past than previously thought.
Source: Media Relations
January 1, 2003
On Watch inside the North Atlantic
WHOI oceanographers are taking a major step toward understanding North Atlantic weather by installing a permanent moored data collection system in 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) of water along the western boundary in the Gulf Stream at "Station W".
ALACE, PALACE and SOLO Floats
Drifting with currents and profiling the upper ocean.
Source: Ocean Instruments
Spray Glider
Measuring temperature, salinity, and turbidity.
Source: Ocean Instruments
In the News
Polar Warming
PBS Online News Hour featuring WHOI Scientist Carin Ashjian
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Ice Age to Warming - and Again?
The Christian Science Monitor news story featuring WHOI Scientist Lloyd Keigwin
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Global Chilling
A New York Times Op-Ed featuring WHOI Scientist Ruth Curry
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Saltier Atlantic Might Help Decipher Global Warming
A Boston Globe article featuring WHOI scientist Ruth Curry
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How will stocks handle the Big Chill?
A CNBC article featuring WHOI scientist Ray Schmitt.
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Researchers Track Rise of Fresh Water in Arctic Ocean
National Public Radio (NPR), Morning Edition, Dec. 17, 2002 A study inside the journal Science finds the volume of fresh water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from rivers in Asia and Europe appears to be rising. The phenomenon could have a transforming impact on currents and worldwide climate by century's end.
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Science PublicationsLeGrande, A. N.; G. A. Schmidt; et.al. January 24, 2006. Consistent Simulations of Multiple Proxy Responses to an Abrupt Local weather modify Event. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences 103(4):837-842.
Denton, G.H., R.B. Alley, G.C. Comer, W.S. Broecker. May-June 2005.
The role of seasonality in abrupt local weather change. Quaternary Science Reviews(24)10-11: 1159-1182.
Overpeck, J.T., M. Sturm, J.A. Francis, et.al. August 23, 2005. Arctic System on Trajectory to New, Seasonally Ice-Free State. EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union. (86)34:309.
Meier, W., J. Stroeve, F. Fetterer, K. Knowles. September 6, 2005. Reductions in Arctic Sea Ice Cover No Longer Limited to Summer. EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union. (86)36:326.
Hansen, B., S. Osterhus Tiffany Setting, D. Quadfasel, W. Turrel. August 2004. Already the Day After Tomorrow? Science 302(5686):953-954.
Alley, R. Abrupt Environment Changes: Oceans, Ice and Us.
Oceanography (17)4:194-296
Alley, R.B., J. Marotzke, W.D. Nordhaus, J.T. Overpeck, et.al. March 28, 2003. Abrupt Local weather Change, Science (299)5615: 2005 - 2010
Committee on Abrupt Weather Adjust, et.al. 2002 Abrupt Weather Change: Inevitable Changes. National Academies Press, Washington DC.
Dickson, B., I. Yashayaev, J. Meincke, B. Turrell, S. Dye, J. Holfort. April 25, 2002. Rapid Freshening from the Deep North Atlantic Ocean over the Past Four Decades Nature 416: 832-837
Weiss, H. and R.S. Bradley January 26, 2001. What Drives Societal Collapse. Science,26:609-610.
The article describes how early civilizations were casualties of rapid weather modify.
Broecker, W.S. November 28, 1997 Thermohaline Circulation, the Achilles Heel of Our Weather System: Will Man-Made CO 2 Upset the Current Balance?
Science 278(5343): 1582-1588
Fagan, B. 2000. The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850. Santa Barbara, Basic Books.
Other Sites We RecommendThe Discovery of Rapid Environment Change

Explanations of how climate works Weather Animations from USA Today
The site archives over a 100 effective and quick loading animated gifs depicting weather phenomena relating to environment change, air masses, air pressure, El Nino, floods, hurricanes, lightning, optical effects, seasons, storms, winds, and much more.

An Overview of Weather Processes
Information on climate processes provided by National Climatic Data Center Paleoclimatology Program. Orbital influences on climate Orbital Dynamics
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Orbital Changes
From the NASA Classroom from the Future site Oceans role in climate
Is Global Sea Level Rising?
From the National Snow and Ice Data Center

Oceans & Local weather: The Ocean’s Role in Environment & Environment Change (pdf version)
Oceanus, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1996, published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

North Atlantic’s Transformation Pipeline Chills and Redistributes Subtropical Water (pdf version)
Oceanus, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1996, published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

A Century of North Atlantic Data Indicates Interdecadal Change (pdf version)
Oceanus, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1996, published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Sedimentary Record Yields Several Centuries of Data (pdf version)
Oceanus, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1996, published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Articles, books and reports on abrupt local weather adjust Abrupt Climate Adjust: Inevitable Surprises
By the Committee on Abrupt Environment Adjust, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Report, 2002.

Report calls for research and policy to cope with volatile climate
Dec. 13. 2001, AGU Meeting, SF, Dec. 2001

The Great Weather Flip-Flop
Atlantic Monthly, January 1998, William Calvin
An good explanation in the possible for and causes of abrupt cooling and some implications for society.
Articles within the likely impact of abrupt environment modify on society What Drives Societal Collapse
Science, January 26, 2001
The article describes how early civilizations were casualties of rapid climate adjust.

Societal Collapse Driven by Abrupt Environment Change
Yale University News Service

Last updated: June 27, 2011


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