Abstract

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, known as ‘AMOC’ is a key regulator of global climate through its voluminous heat and freshwater redistribution over a near-planetary scale. Its zonal-mean state has been well-established, consisting of two distinct overturning cells. The upper cell maintained by the North Atlantic western boundary current, wind-drive gyre circulation and thermohaline changes in the subpolar North Atlantic, serving as a major heat source for mild Europe climate. The lower cell engined by the wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean and ventilation of deep ocean near the Antarctic continent is vital for the global ocean heat and carbon uptake. In this talk, I will introduce two studies that have focuses on both the upper and lower cells of AMOC . The first study focuses on the mesoscale atmospheric forcing on the upper AMOC cell with means of numerical simulation and parameterisation development. The second study focuses on the interaction among the ocean-atmosphere-sea ice that regulates the lower AMOC cell on multidecadal timescales in the Atlantic sector of Antarctic marginal seas based our best knowledge drawn from historical observations.