This strange spot in the Atlantic is resisting the global warming trend. Scientists think they know

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/02/this-strange-spot-over-the-atlantic-isnt-getting-warmer-scientists-think-they-may-know-why/?utm_term=.64f57b7ce541

A mysterious “warming hole” in the North Atlantic Ocean, an anomalous zone of cooling temperatures which has fascinated and puzzled scientists for the past few years, may be evidence of more troubling processes at work.

A new study, just out in the journal Nature Climate Change, has joined a growing body of literature suggesting the cold patch is evidence that a major ocean current system — which transports heat and influences climate and weather patterns around the world — may be slowing down. What’s more, the melting of Arctic sea ice could be to blame.

“I think the main thing about our paper that we show is that the Arctic sea ice loss can play an active role in climate change and ocean change as well,” said Alexey Fedorov, an ocean and geophysics expert at Yale University and one of the new study’s authors.

The “warming hole” is a region over the North Atlantic, just south of Greenland, where long-term temperature maps suggest air temperatures have been cooling slightly over the last century, rather than warming like most of the rest of the world. The warming hole is situated over roughly the same part of the ocean where a so-called cold “blob,” a zone of water persistently cooler compared to the surrounding area, was discovered several years ago.

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