Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (Q314)

Subject, term, tag: Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability

Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV)

Language	Label	Description	Also known as
English	Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability	Subject, term, tag: Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability	Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV)

Statements

Instance of

Category

source version

IPCC Glossary v1.5

1 reference

Source

https://apps.ipcc.ch/glossary/

date accessed

27 May 2026

Part of

Working Group I: Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis

0 references

Definition

Large-scale fluctuations observed from one decade to the next in a variety of instrumental records and proxy reconstructions over the entire North Atlantic ocean and surrounding continents. Fingerprints of AMV can be found at the surface ocean, which is characterized by swings in basin-scale sea surface temperature anomalies reflecting the interaction with the atmosphere. The positive phase of the AMV is characterized by anomalous warming over the entire North Atlantic, with the strongest amplitude in the subpolar gyre and along sea-ice margin zones in the Labrador Sea and Greenland/Barents Sea and in the subtropical North Atlantic basin to a lower extent. In the AR6 WGI report, the term AMV is preferred to Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) used in previous IPCC reports because there is no preferred time scale of decadal variability as the term oscillation would indirectly imply. See Section AIV.2.7 in Annex IV of the AR6 WGI report. (English)