Climate impacts of systematic errors in the simulation of the path of the North Atlantic Current

This conservative and adiabatic adjustment process substantially decreases North Atlantic Ocean SST biases and locally reverses the associated surface heat flux balance in both model configurations.

Ice concentrations in the Labrador Sea increase as the oceanic surface heat fluxes are displaced by the adjustment. Downstream, in the Nordic Seas, the subsurface ocean responds favorably to this adjustment, as the vertical profiles of potential temperature and salinity converge towards the observations. Atmospheric stationary wave patterns show a modest improvement, with a slight weakening of the excessively deep Icelandic low.