DURHAM, N.C. – Two of the world’s most influential science journals, Nature and Science, this week highlighted findings from an international research project led by Susan Lozier, professor of physical oceanography at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

You can read the Science article here.

You can read the Nature article here.

Lozier leads the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (O-SNAP), a seven-nation, $35 million initiative, launched in 2013, to shed light on changes occurring in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), which plays a major role in shaping Earth’s climate.

Last week, she and her O-SNAP colleagues presented initial data from the project to scientists gathered at the American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Science meeting in Portland, Ore.

Their findings, though still preliminary, reveal strong variability in AMOC currents and suggest that ocean currents east of Greenland play unexpectedly large roles in the total AMOC flow. By contrast, most climate models have emphasized the role played by currents west of Greenland in the Labrador Sea.

These new insights add to scientists’ understanding of the complex inner workings of the AMOC and, with further research, could help improve the accuracy of climate models.

Lozier is Ronie-Richelle Garcia-Johnson Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the Nicholas School.

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