EPOC is a Horizon Europe-funded research project. We study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC): how it works, how it has changed, and what its future holds. Institutions across Europe and North America are combining observations, palaeoclimate records, and climate models to resolve uncertainties about AMOC behaviour. Together, we examine how AMOC links to weather, sea level rise, ecosystems, and carbon uptake.
The project is coordinated by Universität Hamburg and brings together 24 partner institutions across Europe and North America. EPOC is funded under the Horizon Europe programme, grant agreement 101081383, and runs until 30 June 2027.
The AMOC, or Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is a large-scale circulation pattern in the ocean. It regulates heat and rainfall across Europe and beyond. EPOC is working to understand how climate change will affect it.
We examine what the latest science says about AMOC collapse risk, separating near-term plausible risks from extreme scenarios that go beyond current evidence, and explaining why accurate communication matters.
Is the AMOC approaching a tipping point? EPOC scientists examine the modelling evidence and what it does — and does not — tell us about the risk of an abrupt shutdown.
Deep water heading south from the Arctic doesn't travel in a straight line. At the Flemish Cap, EPOC researchers found it leaks, scatters and transforms, with consequences for how the AMOC carries its signal across the whole Atlantic.
How do scientists know how the ocean and climate has varied in the distant past when observations only go back 70 years or so? The answer is in the mud at the bottom of the ocean.
The AMOC's strength fluctuates day to day and over centuries. EPOC scientists explain what drives these swings, and why even small changes ripple out to European heatwaves, sea levels and monsoon rainfall on the other side of the world.
EPOC Newsletter #4 now out! What’s in EPOC Newsletter 4 EPOC Newsletter 4 covers the latest developments from across the project community. A new paper published in Nature, led by EPOC scientists at UCL, shows that Atlantic Ocean circulation remained active during
Eye on the Ocean: AMOC public engagement at Glasgow On Saturday 21 February, Glasgow Science Centre hosted Eye On The Ocean, a public ocean science showcase. The event coincided with the arrival of AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 (OSM26) delegates in the
Biogeochemical sensors workshop held in Edinburgh Marine biogeochemists, physical oceanographers, and mooring engineers came together in Edinburgh on 20th February 2026 for the first workshop of its kind. The focus was biogeochemical sensors, and specifically whether the mooring arrays that monitor the
Atlantic Ocean circulation research reached millions last week when the UK’s Channel 4 News featured an extended segment on the RAPID array monitoring system. This timely focus on the AMOC comes just as the world’s ocean scientists gather in Scotland for the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow.
Number of peer-reviewed publications EPOC has contributed to.
See the full list of publications.