We have recently published a study in Geophysical Research Letters titled “The necessity of cloud feedback for a basin-scale Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation“.

The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) – a basin-scale coherent oscillation of sea surface temperatures over the North Atlantic – is thought be one of the climate system’s most important modes of natural variability, affecting everything from drought to hurricane activity to natural fluctuations in global temperature. Traditionally, the basin-scale AMO has been explained as a direct consequence of variability in the Atlantic Ocean’s meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). In contrast, our study identifies atmospheric processes; specifically cloud feedback, as a necessary component for the existence of a basin-scale AMO, thus amending the canonical view of the AMO as a signature directly and solely attributable to oceanic processes.