No seguimento....

Do post anterior, aqui vai um texto elucidativo. Vou pôr a bold o que mais me chamou à atenção...

Unravel extensive changes in the North Atlantic Ocean
Observed record-high ocean temperatures and salinities are ascribed to changes in the circulation of the North Atlantic. They have important implications for the climate in northern Europe. On the one hand, the high salinity of the water masses will secure that the strength of the Gulf Stream system is maintained the upcoming decades. On the other hand, the high temperatures will enhance the impacts of global warming on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere
New article in the journal Science (16 September 2005)

Hjalmar Hátún, Anne Britt Sandø, Helge Drange, Bogi Hansen og Hedinn Valdimarsson: "Influence of the Atlantic Subpolar Gyre on the Thermohaline Circulation", Science 309: 1841-1844

A team of climate scientists from the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the University of Bergen in Norway, together with colleagues from the Faroe Islands and Iceland, report large and unexpected changes in the climate of the North Atlantic Ocean in the Science issue of the September 16

The study describes how measurements of temperature and salinity in the oceans around Norway, the Faroes, Scotland and Iceland were combined with satellite observations and an advanced numerical ocean model to disclose and understand the increases in these parameters, which are unprecedented since regular measurements started in 1948. It is shown that the record highs of temperature and salinity are due to decade-long reduction in the extension of the cold and fresh waters south of Iceland and Greenland, which allow for an enhanced Gulf Stream transport of warm and saline waters into the Nordic Seas west of the Faroes, along the Norwegian coast, and south of Iceland.

These findings are remarkable since they indicate a reversing of an observed gradual freshening of the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas since 1960, as a consequence of enhanced precipitation and melting of snow and ice, partially due to global warming. It is noted that this decrease in salinity alone could weaken the Gulf Stream system.

The new observations presented in Science - record-high ocean temperatures and salinity - are ascribed to changes in the circulation of the North Atlantic. They have important implications for the climate in northern Europe. On the one hand, the high salinity of the water masses will secure that the strength of the Gulf Stream system is maintained the upcoming decades. On the other hand, the high temperatures will enhance the impacts of global warming on the climate of the Northern Hemisphere.

It is unclear whether these changes are due to human influence on the climate system or if they are simply a consequence of natural variability of the North Atlantic climates system. In order to answer this, it is necessary to combine measurements of parameters of the ocean climate with advanced numerical modelling.