The flip-side of the North Atlantic Oscillation and modal shifts in slope-water circulation patterns

A large single-year reversal in the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during 1996 led to a dramatic shift in the slope-water circulation patterns of the northwest (NW) Atlantic. Analyses of time-series data collected from the region over the past half century show that both physical and biological responses are commonly elicited by such phase reversals in the NAO. Here, we use a model developed from time-series data to predict responses of the NW Atlantic slope-water circulation patterns to phase reversals in the NAO.