Comment on "The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation without a role for ocean circulation"

Rong Zhang; Rowan Sutton; Gokhan Danabasoglu; Thomas L Delworth; Who M Kim; Jon Robson; Stephen G Yeager

doi:10.1126/science.aaf1660

Comment on "The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation without a role for ocean circulation"

Science. 2016 Jun 24;352(6293):1527. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf1660.

Authors

Rong Zhang¹, Rowan Sutton², Gokhan Danabasoglu³, Thomas L Delworth⁴, Who M Kim³, Jon Robson², Stephen G Yeager³

Affiliations

¹ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA. rong.zhang@noaa.gov.
² National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
³ Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA.

PMID: 27339976
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf1660

Abstract

Clement et al (Reports, 16 October 2015, p. 320) claim that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is a thermodynamic response of the ocean mixed layer to stochastic atmospheric forcing and that ocean circulation changes have no role in causing the AMO. These claims are not justified. We show that ocean dynamics play a central role in the AMO.

Publication types

Comment
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.