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{{Short description|Current of the Atlantic Ocean}}
{{Redirect|North Atlantic Drift|the 2003 rock album by [[Ocean Colour Scene]]|North Atlantic Drift (album)}}
[[File:North Atlantic currents.svg|thumb|The North Atlantic Current is the first leg in the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre.]]
The '''North Atlantic Current''' ('''NAC'''), also known as '''North Atlantic Drift''' and '''North Atlantic Sea Movement''', is a powerful warm [[western boundary current]] within the [[Atlantic Ocean]] that extends the [[Gulf Stream]] northeastward.<ref name="Rossby-Abst">{{Harvnb|Rossby|1996|loc=Abstract}}</ref>
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== Climate Change ==
[[File:Sgubin2017 spg amoc collapse.jpg|thumb|Modelled 21st century warming under the [[Representative_Concentration_Pathway#RCP_4.5|"intermediate" climate change scenario]] (top). The potential collapse of the subpolar gyre in this scenario (middle). The collapse of the entire AMOC (bottom).]]
{{See also|Tipping points in the climate system}}
Unlike the [[AMOC]], the observations of Labrador Sea outflow showed no negative trend from 1997 to 2009,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fischer |first1=Jürgen |last2=Visbeck |first2=Martin |last3=Zantopp |first3=Rainer |last4=Nunes |first4=Nuno |date=31 December 2010 |title=Interannual to decadal variability of outflow from the Labrador Sea |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010GL045321 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=37 |issue=24 |pages=3204–3210 |doi=10.1029/2010GL045321 |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref> and the Labrador Sea convection began to intensify in 2012, reaching a new high in 2016.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yashayaev |first1=Igor |last2=Loder |first2=John W. |date=8 December 2016 |title=Further intensification of deep convection in the Labrador Sea in 2016 |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL071668 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=44 |issue=3 |doi=10.1002/2016GL071668R |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref> As of 2022, the trend of strengthened Labrador Sea convection appears to hold, and is associated with observed increases in [[marine primary production]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tesdal |first1=Jan-Erik |last2=Ducklow |first2=Hugh W. |last3=Goes |first3=Joaquim I. |last4=Yashayaev |first4=Igor |date=August 2022 |title=Recent nutrient enrichment and high biological productivity in the Labrador Sea is tied to enhanced winter convection |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079661122001069 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=44 |issue=3 |doi=10.1016/j.pocean.2022.102848 |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref> Yet, a 150-year dataset suggests that even this recently strengthened convection is anomalously weak compared to its baseline state.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Thornalley |first1=David JR |display-authors=etal |date=11 April 2018 |title=Anomalously weak Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning during the past 150 years |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0007-4 |journal=Nature |volume=556 |pages=227–230 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0007-4 |access-date=3 October 2022}}</ref>
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