The Atlantic Ocean is known to exert a huge control and hence a decisive role on the surface climate over the neighbouring continents as well as that of the Arctic Ocean. Water masses from both the Pacific and Indian Oceans enter in the South Atlantic and are carried northward to higher latitudes along the main current systems to the deep water formation regions, i.e. where the atmosphere is in direct contact with the deep ocean. Understanding what drives variability on multiple time scales and long-term trends in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean is thus imperative for more confident predictions of the climate in the future.

This session will thus focus on the dynamics, variability and trends along the key climatic current systems from the South Atlantic to the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean and how they are driven by local-, large- or global-scale processes or teleconnections. We aim to bring together researchers using observations, ocean models and state-of-the-art climate models.

We welcome presentations focusing on

- Pathways and connectivity of water masses in the Atlantic Ocean and their variability
- Sources of heat and freshwater anomalies and their role for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)
- Impact of large- and global-scale atmospheric modes on the Atlantic ocean circulation
- Atlantic ocean circulation and influence on on sea-level and sea-ice change