Inventory of EU Marine Climate Change Research

New search

MOEN - Meridional Overturning Exchange with Nordic Seas

Summary information

Funding:FP5 - Research project
Total cost:1727606
Ec contribution:1590709
Start date:2002-12-01
End date:2005-11-30
Duration:36 months
Coordinator:Svein Østerhus (svein.osterhus@gfi.uib.no)
Organisation:Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research – Norway
Themes:Ocean circulation changes
Regio:Arctic; North Atlantic
Project name:MOEN - Meridional Overturning Exchange with Nordic Seas
Project summary:Abstract
The mild climate of north Western Europe is, to a large extent, governed by the influx of warm Atlantic water to the Nordic Seas. Model simulations predict that this influx and the return of flow of cold deep water to the Atlantic may weaken as a consequence of global warming. MOEN will assess the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation by monitoring the flux exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas and by assessing its present and past variability in relation to the atmospheric and thermohaline forcing. This information will be used to improve predictions of regional and global climate changes. MOEN is a self-contained project of the intercontinental Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Flux (ASOF) Array for European Climate project, which aims at monitoring and understanding the oceanic fluxes of heat, salt and freshwater at high northern latitudes and their effect on global ocean circulation and climate.

MOEN will contribute to a better long-term observing system to monitor the exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas from direct and continuous measurements in order to allow an assessment of the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation. This will be done by measuring and modelling fluxes and characteristics of total Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas and of the Iceland-Scotland component of the overflow from the Nordic Seas to the Atlantic.

Objectives
• To contribute to a better long-term observing system to monitor the exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas.
• To assess the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation.
Project outputs:Socio-economic relevance and policy implications
- MOEN has extended the time series of Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas and dense overflows through the Faroe Bank Channel by two years. The new measurements have been combined with historical data to construct a decadal long time series of transport of the warm and salty Atlantic water toward the Arctic and the return of cold dense overflow.
- MOEN has developed a model tool capable of describing the observed volume transport.
- MOEN has designed an optimised monitoring scheme for long-term monitoring of the exchange across the Iceland-Scotland ridge. The basic tools for achieving a sustainable monitoring system are moored, ship- space-born instrumentation used to collect the necessary field data.

Conclusions
- The MOEN field phase was successfully terminated in 2005 with a data return close to 100%.
- MOEN modelling results show that the model is able to describe the observed natural variability and exchange variation with high accuracy.
- Ten peer-review articles have been publish including two high impact papers in Science and Nature. The list of publications is available on the project website.