
Florida Current is weaker now than at any point in the past century - hhs
https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/florida-current-weakening/
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ACAVJW4H
There is a nice video explaining the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation) by Just Have a Think
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yz8nZbZPE8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yz8nZbZPE8)

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NotSammyHagar
Wow, incredibly informative video. That was actually worth 10 minutes to
watch!

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qserasera
Please read the original paper to look at the data otherwise there is not much
to discuss

[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17761-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17761-w)

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joecool1029
Thanks for the link, the thing I wanted to know and this paper answered was
_how_ they measured the current and this was the cool part! They used voltage
induction caused by salt water flowing past abandoned submarine telephone
cables. [1]

[1][https://journals.ametsoc.org/jtech/article/31/5/1169/262](https://journals.ametsoc.org/jtech/article/31/5/1169/262)

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sradman
From the conclusions:

> I applied Bayesian data analysis to observations from submarine cables and
> tide gauges to infer the changes in the Florida Current transport at 27°N
> during 1909–2018.

These are important techniques for deriving a proxy for missing historical
flow data. I have no confidence that the algorithms model a real-world trend
but it seems to have promise as one component of a decent future model.

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jcun4128
I did open the article/Ctrl + F for submarine cables(where did that come
from?)

But was curious what can you tell from those cables? Aren't they inaccessible?
Is it a strain thing or do they somehow have positioning?

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sradman
I followed qserasera's link to the Nature paper. The Methods [1] section says:

> I also use Florida Current transport from submarine telephone cables at 27∘N
> between West Palm Beach and Grand Bahama (Figs. 1b and 2). Using
> electromagnetic theory, one can estimate changes in the flow from voltages
> induced across the cable due to the transport of charged particles by the
> variable current.

[1]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17761-w#Sec8](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17761-w#Sec8)

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jcun4128
What... wow. I was thinking maybe resistance (fiber?) or something but wow.
Anyway thanks for that, very interesting.

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throwaway1777
Is this implication of this that the gulf stream will weaken and Northern
Europe will cool?

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haunter
Just a theory there is not enough information

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutdown_of_thermohaline_circu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutdown_of_thermohaline_circulation)

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supernova87a
Would be really interesting to have a qualitative description of where global
ocean flows are increasing, if they are decreasing here? Or if in general,
ocean circulation / transport is undergoing some change?

Or watching the video commented below, maybe it's the weakening that's
happening _because_ of the warming and freshening of arctic waters like around
Greenland.

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sulam
There isn't a "conservation of flow" principle for liquids, so there's no need
to go looking for a flow increase somewhere else because this flow is
decreasing.

