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... However, human-caused climate change is slowing this vital system and even threatening a potentially near-future collapse.
Given the gravity of the situation, there has been much debate among scientists about how likely this is to happen " and when.
The latest effort to iron out our understanding of the AMOC and the consequences of its stalling comes in the form of a study published in Nature Communications.
A team of scientists used decades of NASA-acquired atmospheric data and climate simulations to project the evolution of the AMOC, forecasting life-changing shifts for communities around the globe.
"It is well known that the AMOC is a big player in the world's climate system, and that it is slowing down," says Mohima Mimi, a climate dynamics researcher at the University of California, Riverside, and the study's lead author.
"What we didn't know is exactly how the AMOC might impact atmospheric moisture and storms outside the Atlantic region."
The researchers have determined that an amok AMOC could exert significant climatic differences on a worldwide scale, as Mimi explains:
"It turns out a weakening AMOC will strengthen storms across parts of North America by the end of the century, along the California coast in particular, while reducing them over Greenland and the Arctic." ...
