Note that the warm deep 'archived' water is capped by a cool-fresh layer of water, and the first article indicates that ice mass loss from Greenland has been contributing to feedback mechanisms that has caused the Beaufort Gyre to progressively stockpile more freshwater than all of the great lakes combined (see the first image). While some consensus scientists will undoubtable emphasize that an eventual release of this freshwater in coming years will result in a temporary cooling of the North Atlantic and Europe, which may decrease GMSTA; I note that such a release of freshwater from the Beaufort Gyre would also slow down the MOC; which in turn would increase climate sensitivity:
Title: "How a Wayward Arctic Current Could Cool the Climate in Europe"
http://e360.yale.edu/features/how-a-wayward-arctic-current-could-cool-the-climate-in-europeExtract: "The Beaufort Gyre, a key Arctic Ocean current, is acting strangely. Scientists say it may be on the verge of discharging a huge amount of ice and cold freshwater that could kick off a period of lower temperatures in northern Europe.
…
…something is amiss with this vital plumbing system in the Arctic, a region warming faster than any other on the planet. Thanks in part to rising air temperatures, steadily disappearing sea ice, and the annual melting of 270 billion tons of ice from Greenland’s ice cap, the gyre is no longer functioning as it has predictably done for more than a half century. And now, scientists are anticipating that a sudden change in the Beaufort Gyre could set in motion events that — in a steadily warming world — would actually lead to a temporary but significant cooling of the North Atlantic region.
During the second half of the 20th century — and, most likely, earlier — the gyre adhered to a cyclical pattern in which it would shift gears every five to seven years and temporarily spin in a counter-clockwise direction, expelling ice and freshwater into the eastern Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. But for more than a dozen years, this carousel of ice and, increasingly, freshwater has been spinning faster in its usual clockwise direction, all the while collecting more and more freshwater from three sources: melting sea ice, huge volumes of runoff flowing into the Arctic Ocean from Russian and North American rivers, and the relatively fresh water streaming in from the Bering Sea….
The gyre’s strange behavior is likely linked, at least in part, to the profound warming of the Arctic, and it demonstrates how disruptions in one rapidly changing region of the world can affect ecosystems hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. In a recent paper, Krishfield, Proshutinsky, and other scientists suggest that frigid freshwater pouring into the north Atlantic Ocean from the rapidly melting Greenland ice sheet is forming a cap on the North Atlantic that results in stratification that prevents storm-triggering heat from the northern end of the Gulf Stream from rising to the surface. The scientists say this may be inhibiting the formation of cyclones that would cause the motion of the gyre to weaken or temporarily reverse.
If that is the case, it may mean the gyre will continue to grow and spin clockwise for years to come."
See also:
Andrey Proshutinsky, Dmitry Dukhovskoy, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Richard Krishfield, Jonathan L. Bamber (2015), "Arctic circulation regimes", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2014.0160
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/2052/20140160Abstract: "Between 1948 and 1996, mean annual environmental parameters in the Arctic experienced a well-pronounced decadal variability with two basic circulation patterns: cyclonic and anticyclonic alternating at 5 to 7 year intervals. During cyclonic regimes, low sea-level atmospheric pressure (SLP) dominated over the Arctic Ocean driving sea ice and the upper ocean counterclockwise; the Arctic atmosphere was relatively warm and humid, and freshwater flux from the Arctic Ocean towards the subarctic seas was intensified. By contrast, during anticylonic circulation regimes, high SLP dominated driving sea ice and the upper ocean clockwise. Meanwhile, the atmosphere was cold and dry and the freshwater flux from the Arctic to the subarctic seas was reduced. Since 1997, however, the Arctic system has been under the influence of an anticyclonic circulation regime (17 years) with a set of environmental parameters that are atypical for this regime. We discuss a hypothesis explaining the causes and mechanisms regulating the intensity and duration of Arctic circulation regimes, and speculate how changes in freshwater fluxes from the Arctic Ocean and Greenland impact environmental conditions and interrupt their decadal variability."
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The third linked Marino & Zahn (2015) reference (and second attached image) shows how a cooling of the North Atlantic can cause warming around Antarctica and an increase of Agulhas Leakage which can interact with the AMOC to strengthen Arctic Amplification and the bipolar seesaw:
Gianluca Marino and Rainer Zahn (January 2015), "The Agulhas Leakage: the missing link in the interhemispheric climate seesaw?", Past Global Changes Magazine, SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS: Glacial terminations and interglacials
http://www.pages-igbp.org/download/docs/magazine/2015-1/PAGESmagazine_2015(1)_22-23_Marino.pdf&
With continued global warming one can expect more Agulhas leakage (see the third image); which per the fourth linked reference means that one can expect the AMOC to continue slowing; which should work synergistically with Hansen's ice-climate feedback, particularly if the WAIS collapses in coming decades:
Kathryn A. Kelly, Kyla Drushka, LuAnne Thompson, Dewi Le Bars & Elaine L. McDonagh (25 July 2016), "Impact of slowdown of Atlantic overturning circulation on heat and freshwater transports", Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069789
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL069789/abstract&
The fifth linked reference about the influence of the recent increased Agulhas leakage on tropical Atlantic warming and the response of the AMOC:
Joke F. Lübbecke, Jonathan V. Durgadoo, and Arne Biastoch (2015), "Contribution of increased Agulhas leakage to tropical Atlantic warming", Journal of Climate, doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0258.1 http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0258.1&
The sixth linked reference (with a free access pdf) indicates that the leakage of warm saline water from the Agulhas Current into the Atlantic Ocean, caused a positive feedback mechanism contributing to polar amplification during the Eemian; and that this mechanism could become increasingly important with increasing global warming today:
Turney, C. S.M. and Jones, R. T. (2010), Does the Agulhas Current amplify global temperatures during super-interglacials?. J. Quaternary Sci., 25: 839–843. doi: 10.1002/jqs.1423
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jqs.1423/full
