Ocean currents are important transfers of energy around the globe. The oceans are split into different layers, with deep water operating in different ways to surface water. The Global Conveyor Belt is a global ocean current that is responsible for transferring warmer, equatorial waters to Northern Europe. This water cools and sinks, with deep water returning South, before rising in the central Pacific and Indian Ocean and returning to Europe. The climate in Northern Europe is heavily influenced by this flow of energy from the equator, and explains the higher temperatures at latitudes which, elsewhere on such latitudes not benefiting from these currents, are much colder.
Global Conveyor. Source: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/climate-change-could-stall-atlantic-ocean-current
Research has suggested that increased rainfall combined with the release of cold freshwater from melting glaciers in the North Atlantic could stop or significantly weaken this global circulation, with significant impacts on the climate in Northern Europe.
