COSEE Ocean Systems: News
New Understanding of Key Ocean Passageway Could Aid Climate Change Forecasts
Description: The passageway that links the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean is acting differently because of climate change and now its new behavior could in turn affect climate in both ocean basins in new ways. Researchers have found that the flow of water in the Indonesian Throughflow - the network of straits that pass Indonesia's islands - has changed since the late 2000s under the influence of dominant La Niña conditions. The flow has become more shallow and intense in the manner that water flows through a hose that has become kinked. The study suggests that human-caused climate change might make this characteristic a more dominant feature of the throughflow, even when El Niño conditions return. [Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography]
URL: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-understanding-key-ocean-passageway-could-aid-climate-change-forecasts
Availability: Full Text
Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Publish Date: 6/22/2014
Reading Level: Basic
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