EPOC is a European AMOC research project. We study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: 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 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.
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.
Recovering EPOC sensors from the subtropical North Atlantic Preparations are underway for the next RAPID programme research cruise (DY174) at the North Atlantic’s eastern boundary, just south of the Canary Islands. Next week (28 March 2024), the team will depart Santa Cruz
The first EPOC newsletter is out! Reflecting on progress over the past 12 months, this first edition of the biannual EPOC newsletter focuses on our recent AMOC observational activities, as well as a round up of recent meetings and workshops. Happy reading!
Atlantic overturning: new observations and challenges 23 October 2023 A new collection of scientific papers summarising the latest knowledge on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) are published online today (23 October 2023). The papers follow as a result of a scientific
Sailing on the German research vessel RV Maria S. Merian, the team left Nuuk, Greenland and is heading south to the Flemish Cap to deploy new moorings and pressure sensors…
Number of peer-reviewed publications EPOC has contributed to.
See the full list of publications.