In theoretical models an AMOC tipping point is associated with the so-called salt advection feedback or Stommel feedback7, which becomes unstable at this point. The existence of this AMOC bifurcation point has been confirmed in the full climate model hierarchy21 up to a state‐of‐the‐art global climate model22.
The rate of AMOC decline in the time series shown in Fig. 1 does not show where the tipping point is, because the increase in forcing (i.e. greenhouse gases) occurs at a similar time scale as the AMOC winding down after passing the tipping point. That is why model experiments to locate the tipping point are conducted with a very slow increase in forcing22,23. Passing the tipping point means that the AMOC will grind to a halt by internal feedback from that point onward, even without further increase in forcing.
A critical part of the causal chain with a faster response time scale is the deep convection in the northern Atlantic, typically occurring in late winter to early spring at times when surface layer density reaches a maximum. Since this is thermally driven convection, with colder surface waters being mixed with somewhat warmer deep waters, this mixing warms the surface, increases surface heat loss and evaporation, and thus cools and densifies the water column – a crucial process for the density-driven AMOC.
Figure 2 shows the depth of the surface mixed layer in March at its maximum. Convection depths show significant variability up to around the year 2000 but start a continuous terminal decline after that. In both models, in the high-emissions scenario by the mid-21st century deep convection has all but ceased, leaving only a typical wind-mixed surface layer depth of the order of 100 m.
Thermally driven ocean convection is known to have a tipping point itself: the northern convection regions are net-precipitation regions, so in the absence of deep mixing freshwater tends to accumulate in the surface layer, increasingly inhibiting mixing24. This is another self-amplifying feedback which can shut down convection in the northern Atlantic25,26.
In the low emission scenario, deep convection in the Nordic Seas declines more slowly. In the MRI model, halfway through the 22nd century all convection ceased. In the UKESM model it remains active especially in the Nordic Seas, albeit with a much shallower mixed layer depth than before 2000, consistent with the fact that the AMOC does not collapse in this model contrary to the MRI model. While a shut-down of part of the deep convection areas will weaken the AMOC, a shutdown of all deep convection areas must be considered a precursor of a full AMOC shutdown.
Deep convection in the Nordic Seas appears to be the most resilient to global warming. Previous studies have shown than many CMIP5 and CMIP6 models show a deep-convection collapse by 2050 in the subpolar gyre region (i.e. Labrador and Irminger Seas)27,28. This leads to rapid cooling over the northern Atlantic “with a substantial effect on surface temperature over Europe, precipitation pattern in the tropics … and a possible impact on the mean atmospheric circulation”27. Thus, even if this does not lead to a full AMOC shutdown the societal impacts are likely serious.
In Fig. 3 we analyse the surface layer salinity and temperature, surface heat flux and sea ice cover in two models: the MRI ESM, where the AMOC collapses both in the low and high emissions scenarios following a very similar trajectory (Figs. 1 and 2), and in the UKESM where the AMOC collapses only in the high emission scenario. In the MRI ESM the salinity declines strongly, as precipitation minus evaporation (P-E) increases over the subpolar North Atlantic, amplified by a weakening AMOC bringing less salty subtropical water to the region (Stommel feedback; Supplementary Figure 6). The freshwater input from melting sea ice declines in the 21st century (due to little sea ice left) and thus counteracts the freshening somewhat. The salinity reduction is substantially less in the low emission scenario due to a smaller increase in P-E and absent in the UKESM where the initial forcing by P-E is not strong enough to invoke the Stommel feedback. Observational data show that already today, salinity in the Irminger Sea is the lowest in 120 years of measurements29.
Temperatures follow different trajectories. In the high emission case temperatures increase strongly after a temporary plateau or dip, as global warming overwhelms the regional loss of AMOC heat transport. In the low emission case in the MRI-ESM temperatures drop below pre-industrial in all three regions as the AMOC dies, in the Irminger Sea even down to 5°C below pre-industrial values. The cooling leads to a massive increase in sea ice cover. Heat loss through the ocean surface declines in all cases, reflecting the greatly reduced amount of heat brought to the region by the AMOC. In the UKESM the temperature modestly increases in the low emission scenario.
The changes in the ocean water density result from both salinity and temperature, as shown on the right scale on the corresponding panels in Fig. 4. Salinity changes dominate: the salinity decline causes ~2 kg/m3 density reduction in the low emissions scenario, only partly compensated by a ~0.5–1 kg/m3 density increase due to cooling. In the high emissions scenario, both the salinity-decline and warming add up to reduce density, with the salinity effect still dominating.
Figure 4 shows an observations-based subsurface ocean analysis product31. In the Irminger and Nordic Seas, mixed layer depths are at an all-time low, while in the Labrador Sea it has declined nearly to the low point observed during the 1970s Great Salinity Anomaly32. While decadal variability is large so final conclusions cannot yet be drawn, the observed evolution over the last decades is consistent with the model simulations eventually leading to a convection collapse. This supports our argument that the risk of an AMOC collapse is greater than previously thought.