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Rocky reef coastlines typically feature highly variable and often abrupt cross- and alongshore changes in bathymetry. The effects of this irregular rocky bathymetry on the dynamics of infragravity waves are largely unknown. Most models of infragravity wave dynamics have been developed and validated on smooth alongshore-uniform bathymetries, which may break down over these highly variable bathymetries. A two-week field experiment was conducted on a rocky reef-fringed beach to investigate how the variable bathymetry affects the spatial and temporal variability of infragravity waves. The height of short (sea-swell) waves decreased over the shallow reef due to breaking, whereas the height of infragravity waves increased towards the shoreline. Both during a storm event (Hm0 = 2.3 m) and under moderate wave conditions (Hm0 = 1.0-1.8 m), the infragravity waves formed a persistent cross-shore standing wave pattern along the entire shoreline, despite the irregular bathymetry. In addition, the alongshore components of infragravity waves refracted by the presence of the nearshore reef, were observed to propagate in opposite directions up and down the coast resulting in a local alongshore standing wave pattern. Thus, the presence of highly variable nearshore bathymetry, which commonly occurs along rocky reef coastlines, may produce both cross- and alongshore standing wave patterns.
During the collection of ship-based observations, heaving of the vessel may lead to variation in the descent rate of a CTD package. This can result in the package being pulled upwards through previously sampled water, leading to difficult to quantify errors due to the complex wake. To reduce this problem to one of manageable stature, we use the simple paradigm of two dimensional flow past a cylinder. By using a tracer with a gradient along the flow, we quantify the effect of the cylinder on its distribution and the impact of post processing. At high Reynolds numbers, over 200, uniform translation leads to a small error in the tracer value. This error is likely negligible at the much higher Reynolds number of the ocean. When the flow is oscillated longitudinally, there are two main sources of error; attached vortices may propagate around the cylinder and/or shed vortices may translate into the path of the cylinder. Post processing by removing records from previous pressure levels removes much of the first error, due to it occurring as the package ascends. However, the second source of error is more difficult to remove, due to it occurring when the package is once again descending. In general, results indicate that long period oscillations are preferable. Whilst the magnitude of the errors are comparable to those from short period oscillations, they are spread farther apart in time and space and the overall effect is to localise the errors in small regions of the final depth profile.
Numerical simulations were performed using a 3D ocean circulation model (ROMS) two-way coupled to a phase-averaged wave propagation model (SWAN), in order to expand our understanding of the dynamics of wave-current interactions at the Mouth of the Columbia River (MCR). First, model results are compared with water elevations, currents, temperature, salinity and wave measurements obtained by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers during the Mega-Transect Experiment in 2005. We then discuss the effects of the currents on the waves and vice versa. Results show that wave heights are intensified notably at the entrance of the mouth in the presence of the tidal currents, especially in ebb flows. We also find non-local modifications to the wave field because of wave focusing processes that re-direct wave energy towards the inlet mouth from adjacent areas, resulting in the presence of a tidal signatures in areas where local currents are weak. The model also suggests significant wave amplification at the edge of the expanding plume in the later stages of ebb, some tens of kilometers offshore of the inlet mouth, with potential implications for navigation safety. The effect of waves on the location of the plume is also analyzed, and results suggest that the plume is shifted in the down-wave direction when wave effects are considered, and that this shift is more pronounced for larger waves, and consistent with the presence of alongshore advection terms in the salt advection equation, which are related to the Stokes velocities associated with waves.
Satellite measurements of coastal or inland waters near land/water interfaces suffer from land adjacency effects (LAEs), particularly in the short wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths. Here, a statistical method was developed to quantify the LAEs as the ratio of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) total radiance (Lt, W m−2 µm−1 sr−1) between near-shore pixels and LAE-free offshore pixels (>12 pixels away from land). The calculations were conducted using MODIS Aqua images between 2003 and 2012 over the Madagascar Island, with results showing the dependency of LAEs on different environmental and observational factors. The LAEs decrease dramatically with increasing distance from shoreline, and increase with decreasing aerosol optical thickness at 869 nm (τ869). The nearby land surface albedo also plays a role in modulating the LAEs, but the impact is only prominent under low-aerosol conditions. Based on these observations, a look-up-table (LUT) to formulate a correction scheme was established. Tests of the correction scheme using satellite observations over the Hawaii Islands and using in situ measurements in the Chesapeake Bay show significant improvements in Lt (LAEs much closer to 1 than uncorrected data) and retrieved surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a, mg m−3), respectively. Furthermore, the number of Chl-a retrievals within the range of 0 – 64 mg m−3 also increases by >60%. While the ultimate solution of correcting the LAEs for coastal/inland water applications still requires further work, these preliminary results suggest that the method proposed here deserves further tests in other estuaries and lakes.
Many processes are known to influence the distribution of sea surface temperature (SST) fronts in Eastern Boundary Current Systems (EBCS), including wind forcing, mesoscale activity, flow instabilities and flow-topography interactions. Here, we used satellite observations to quantify the relative importance of one of these processes, mesoscale eddy activity, on the distribution of SST gradients in EBCS. Eddies are characterized by large SST and SST gradient anomalies in all EBCS. At the end of the upwelling season, eddy-induced SST gradients are dominant components of the full SST gradient offshore of 300 km from the coast, especially in regions of high eddy activity. Comparisons between eddy-induced and full SST gradients in the California Current System indicate that the offshore migration of mesoscale eddies plays a significant role on the seasonal widening of the region of high frontal activity. SST gradients associated with anticyclonic eddies are largest within 400 km from shore, while the signature of cyclones can extend for up to 700 km from the coast.
Large uncertainty in the predicted intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs) persists compared to the steadily improving skill in the predicted TC tracks. This intensity uncertainty has its most significant implications in the coastal zone, where TC impacts to populated shorelines are greatest. Recent studies have demonstrated that rapid ahead-of-eye-center cooling of a stratified coastal ocean can have a significant impact on hurricane intensity forecasts. Using observation-validated, high-resolution ocean modeling, the stratified coastal ocean cooling processes observed in two U.S. Mid-Atlantic hurricanes were investigated: Hurricane Irene (2011)—with an inshore Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) track during the late summer stratified coastal ocean season—and Tropical Storm Barry (2007)—with an offshore track during early summer. For both storms, the critical ahead-of-eye-center depth-averaged force balance across the entire MAB shelf included an onshore wind stress balanced by an offshore pressure gradient. This resulted in onshore surface currents opposing offshore bottom currents that enhanced surface to bottom current shear and turbulent mixing across the thermocline, resulting in the rapid cooling of the surface layer ahead-of-eye-center. Because the same baroclinic and mixing processes occurred for two storms on opposite ends of the track and seasonal stratification envelope, the response appears robust. It will be critical to forecast these processes and their implications for a wide range of future storms using realistic 3D coupled atmosphere-ocean models to lower the uncertainty in predictions of TC intensities and impacts and enable coastal populations to better respond to increasing rapid intensification threats in an era of rising sea levels.
A novel large wave flume experiment was conducted on a fixed, barred beach with a sediment pit on the sandbar, allowing for the isolation of small-scale bed response to large-scale forcing. Concurrent measurements of instantaneous sheet layer sediment concentration profiles and near-bed velocity profiles were obtained on a sandbar for the first time. Two sediment distributions were used with median grain diameters, d50, of 0.17 mm and 0.27 mm. Sheet flow occurred primarily under wave crests, where sheet thickness increased with increasing wave height. A proportionality constant, Λ, was used to relate maximum Shields parameter to maximum sheet thickness (normalized by d50), with bed shear stress computed using the quadratic drag law. An enhanced sheet layer thickness was apparent for the smaller sediment experiments (Λ = 18.7), when directly compared to closed-conduit oscillatory flow tunnel data (Λ = 10.6). However, Λ varied significantly (5 < Λ < 31) depending on the procedure used to estimate grain roughness, ds, and wave friction factor, fw. Three models for ks were compared (keeping the model for fw fixed): constant ks = 2.5d50, and two expressions dependent on flow intensity, derived from steady and oscillatory sheet flow experiments. Values of ks/d50 varied by two orders of magnitude and exhibited an inverse relationship with Λ, where Λ ∼ 30 for ks/d50 of O(1) while Λ ∼ 5 for ks/d50 of O(100). Two expressions for fw were also tested (with the steady-flow-based model for ks), yielding a difference of 69% (Λ ∼13 versus Λ ∼ 22).
The influence of the chlorophyll on the upper Tropical Atlantic ocean is investigated with long term (1979-2012) regional oceanic simulations with 1/4° horizontal resolution based on the NEMO3.6 model. The model solar radiation penetration scheme depends on the chlorophyll concentration. Simulations with time and spatially varying concentrations obtained from satellite ocean color observations are compared with a simulation forced with constant chlorophyll concentration of 0.05 mg m−3, representative of chlorophyll depleted waters. Results indicate that regions of the Tropical Atlantic with chlorophyll concentrations larger than in the reference simulation (i.e. [chl] > 0.05 mg m−3) get warmer at the surface, with the exception of the main upwelling regions where high chlorophyll concentrations are associated with a significant cooling of the sea surface (∼1°C in the Benguela upwelling). The analysis of the model heat balance shows that the biological differential heating causes negative temperature anomalies in subsurface source waters prior to their upwelling at the coast. The shallow mixed-layer in the eastern equatorial and tropical Atlantic favors the persistence of these subsurface anomalies and may explain why the Benguela is particularly sensitive to the biological differential heating. In spite of the presence of high chlorophyll concentrations in the upwelling regions, both the larger amount of shortwave radiation captured in the surface layers and the modifications of the horizontal and vertical advection at the coast are found to play a secondary role in the SST change in the upwelling region.
Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea are highly sensitive to seasonal and interannual changes in sea ice extent, water mass distribution, and oceanic fronts. With the ongoing increase of Atlantic Water inflows, we expect an impact on these blooms. Here, we use a state-of-the-art collection of in situ hydro-geochemical data for the period 1998-2014, which includes ocean color satellite-derived proxies for the biomass of calcifying and non-calcifying phytoplankton. Over the last 17 years, sea ice extent anomalies were evidenced having direct consequences for the spatial extent of spring blooms in the Barents Sea. In years of minimal sea ice extent, two spatially distinct blooms were clearly observed: one along the ice edge and another in ice-free water. These blooms are thought to be triggered by different stratification mechanisms: heating of the surface layers in ice-free waters and melting of the sea ice along the ice edge. In years of maximal sea ice extent, no such spatial delimitation was observed. The spring bloom generally ended in June when nutrients in the surface layer were depleted. This was followed by a stratified and oligotrophic summer period. A coccolithophore bloom generally developed in August, but was confined only to Atlantic Waters. In these same waters, a late summer bloom of non-calcifying algae was observed in September, triggered by enhanced mixing, which replenishes surface waters with nutrients. Altogether, the 17-year time-series revealed a northward and eastward shift of the spring and summer phytoplankton blooms.
The correlation between seafloor morphological features and biological complexity has been identified in numerous recent studies. This research focused on the potential for accurate characterization of coral reefs based on high-resolution bathymetry from multiple sources. A standard deviation (STD) based method for quantitatively characterizing terrain complexity was developed that includes robust estimation to correct for irregular bathymetry and a calibration for the depth-dependent variablity of measurement noise. Airborne LiDAR and shipborne sonar bathymetry measurements from Yuanzhi Island, South China Sea, were merged to generate seamless high-resolution coverage of coral bathymetry from the shoreline to deep water. The new algorithm was applied to the Yuanzhi Island surveys to generate maps of quantitive terrain complexity, which were then compared to in situ video observations of coral abundance. The terrain complexity parameter is significantly correlated with seafloor coral abundance, demonstrating the potential for accurately and efficiently mapping coral abundance through seafloor surveys, including combinations of surveys using different sensors.
Sea-level rise and decadal variability along the northwestern coast of the North Atlantic Ocean are studied in a self-consistent framework that takes into account the effects of solid-earth deformation and geoid changes due to large-scale mass redistribution processes. Observations of sea and land level changes from tide gauges and GPS are compared to the cumulative effect of GIA, present-day mass redistribution, and ocean dynamics over a 50-year period (1965-2014). GIA explains the majority of the observed sea-level and land motion trends, as well as almost all inter-station variability. Present-day mass redistribution resulting from ice melt and land hydrology causes both land uplift and sea-level rise in the region.
We find a strong correlation between decadal steric variability in the Subpolar Gyre and coastal sea level, which is likely caused by variability in the Labrador Sea that is propagated southward. The steric signal explains the majority of the observed decadal sea-level variability and shows an upward trend and a significant acceleration, which are also found along the coast.
The sum of all contributors explains the observed trends in both sea level rise and vertical land motion in the region, as well as the decadal variability. The sum of contributors also explains the observed acceleration within confidence intervals. The sea-level acceleration coincides with an accelerating density decrease at high latitudes.
We investigate wind-driven circulation in a peri-alpine lake (Lake Ledro - Italy) using LES-COAST. Lake Ledro is interesting because its own dimensions are suited for LES and it is surrounded by complex orography, affecting wind distribution. We consider the winter condition when stratification is nearly absent. Two types of time-varying wind stress are used: spatially homogeneous and spatially inhomogeneous respectively.
The analysis of the eddy viscosities shows substantial differences with respect to the ocean case characterized by absence of coastal boundaries and homogeneous, steady wind. The quantities exhibit a noticeable inhomogeneous behavior: the horizontal eddy viscosity is larger in the water body far from the boundaries, whereas the vertical one is larger close to the lateral boundaries due to the presence of a boundary layer. The energetic bottom boundary layer, typically occurring in lakes, is not present. This because of the intrinsic unsteadiness of the thermal wind blowing over the lake and due to the absence of large amplitude internal waves, the latter present only in case of stable stratification. In the inhomogeneous wind case, up-welling and down-welling areas are not confined along the shoreline only, but are also generated in the water body due to substantial horizontal velocity divergence, and turbulent mixing, quantified by eddy viscosities, TKE and its dissipation rate, appears enhanced with respect to the homogeneous wind case. Finally, downwelling/upwelling areas along the windward/leeward coastline respectively were observed, whose quantitative estimation may give explanation for the bloom of cyanobacteria at the lake surface observed in winter.
An eddy-resolving coupled regional ocean-sea ice-ice shelf model is employed to locate the hot spots where modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) intrudes onto the continental shelf within Prydz Bay, and locate the paths through which mCDW is transported to the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) calving front. Evaluation of the model output is with satellite, hydrographic and borehole data. Two critical windows responsible for mCDW intrusions are identified. The first is the eastern branch of the cyclonic Prydz Bay gyre (PBG) that carries mCDW to the ice front line, accounting for an annual mean heat transport of ∼8.7 ×1011 J s−1. The second is located to the east of the Four Ladies Bank (FLB) where mCDW is channeled through submarine troughs, accounting for an annual mean heat transport of ∼16.2 ×1011 J s−1. The eddy-induced heat transport accounts for ∼23% in the path of the PBG and ∼52% in the path of the eastern coastal current, with respect to their total onshore heat transport. The seasonal pulsing of mCDW intrusions is greatly dependent on the seasonal cycle of the Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) that peaks with a maximum of ∼29.3 Sv at 75°E in June. In austral winter, mCDW is allowed to access the eastern flank of the AIS calving front with potential consequences for the basal mass balance of the AIS. The dynamic effects of small-scale troughs on the longshore ASC play an important role in the onshore mCDW transport.
Estuarine mixing is often intensified in regions where topographic forcing leads to hydraulic transitions. Observations in the salt-wedge estuary of the Connecticut River indicate that intense mixing occurs during the ebb tide in regions of supercritical flow that is accelerated by lateral expansion of the channel. The zones of mixing are readily identifiable based on echo-sounding images of large-amplitude shear instabilities. The gradient Richardson number (Ri) averaged across the mixing layer decreases to a value very close to 0.25 during most of the active mixing phase. The along-estuary variation in internal Froude number and interface elevation are roughly consistent with a steady, inviscid, two-layer hydraulic representation, and the fit is improved when a parameterization for interfacial stress is included. The analysis indicates that the mixing results from lateral straining of the shear layer, and that the rapid development of instabilities maintains the overall flow near the mixing threshold value of Ri=0.25, even with continuous, active mixing. The entrainment coefficient can be estimated from salt conservation within the interfacial layer, based on the finding that the mixing maintains Ri=0.25. This approach leads to a scaling estimate for the interfacial mixing coefficient based on the lateral spreading rate and the aspect ratio of the flow, yielding estimates of turbulent dissipation within the pycnocline that are consistent with estimates based on turbulence-resolving measurements.
In nutrient limited conditions, phytoplankton growth at fronts is enhanced by winds, which drive upward nutrient fluxes via enhanced turbulent mixing and upwelling. Hence, depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass can be ten times greater at isolated fronts. Using theory and two-dimensional simulations with a coupled physical-biogeochemical ocean model, this paper builds conceptual understanding of the physical processes driving upward nutrient fluxes at fronts forced by unsteady winds with timescales of 4-16 days. The largest vertical nutrient fluxes occur when the surface mixing layer penetrates the nutricline, which fuels phytoplankton in the mixed layer. At a front, mixed layer deepening depends on the magnitude and direction of the wind stress, cross-front variations in buoyancy and velocity at the surface, and potential vorticity at the base of the mixed layer, which itself depends on past wind events. Consequently, mixing layers are deeper and more intermittent in time at fronts than outside fronts. Moreover, mixing can decouple in time from the wind stress, even without other sources of physical variability. Wind-driven upwelling also enhances depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass at fronts; when the mixed layer remains shallower than the nutricline, this results in enhanced subsurface phytoplankton. Oscillatory along-front winds induce both oscillatory and mean upwelling. The mean effect of oscillatory vertical motion is to transiently increase subsurface phytoplankton over days to weeks, whereas slower mean upwelling sustains this increase over weeks to months. Taken together, these results emphasize that wind-driven phytoplankton growth is both spatially and temporally intermittent and depends on a diverse combination of physical processes.
In this study, we investigate the processes of phytoplankton growth and decline in mesoscale eddies in the western North Pacific Ocean based on the in-situ chlorophyll data obtained from 52 cruises conducted by the Japan Meteorological Agency together with idealized numerical simulations. Both the observation and model results suggest that chlorophyll/phytoplankton concentrations are higher in cold than in warm eddies in near-surface water (z > –70 m). In the idealized simulation, the isopycnal movements associated with upwelling/downwelling transport biomass to different vertical depths during eddy formation (stage A). Biomass in cold eddies is transported toward shallower waters while those in warm eddies move toward deeper waters. In the period after the eddy has formed (stage B), sunlight and initially upwelled nutrients together promote the growth of phytoplankton in cold eddies. Phytoplankton in warm eddies decays due to insufficient sunlight in deeper waters. In stage B, upwelling and downwelling coexist in both warm and cold eddies, contributing nearly equally to vertical displacement. The upwelling/downwelling-induced nitrate flux accounts for a small percentage (∼3%) of the total nitrate flux in stage B. The vertical velocity caused by propagating eddies, therefore, is not the primary factor causing differences in phytoplankton concentrations between stage-B warm and cold eddies.
Biogenic matter characteristics and radiocarbon contents of organic carbon (OC) were examined on sinking particle samples intercepted at three nominal depths of 1000 m, 2000 m, and 3000 m (∼50 m above the seafloor) during a 3-year sediment trap program on the New England slope in the Northwest Atlantic. We have sought to characterize the sources of sinking particles in the context of vertical export of biogenic particles from the overlying water column and lateral supply of resuspended sediment particles from adjacent margin sediments. High aluminum (Al) abundances and low OC radiocarbon contents indicated contributions from resuspended sediment which was greatest at 3000 m but also significant at shallower depths. The benthic source (i.e., laterally supplied resuspended sediment) of opal appears negligible based on the absence of a correlation with Al fluxes. In comparison, CaCO3 fluxes at 3000 m showed a positive correlation with Al fluxes. Benthic sources accounted for 42 ∼ 63% of the sinking particle flux based on radiocarbon mass balance and the relationship between Al flux and CaCO3 flux. Episodic pulses of Al at 3000 m were significantly correlated with the near-bottom current at a nearby hydrographic mooring site, implying the importance of current variability in lateral particle transport. However, Al fluxes at 1000 m and 2000 m were coherent but differed from those at 3000 m, implying more than one mode of lateral supply of particles in the water column.
This study was a part of the DeWEX project (Deep Water formation EXperiment), designed to better understand the impact of dense water formation on the marine biogeochemical cycles. Here, nutrient and phytoplankton vertical and horizontal distributions were investigated during a deep open-ocean convection event and during the following spring bloom in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea (NWM). In February 2013, the deep convection event established a surface nutrient gradient from the center of the deep convection patch to the surrounding mixed and stratified areas. In the center of the convection area, a slight but significant difference of nitrate, phosphate and silicate concentrations was observed possibly due to the different volume of deep waters included in the mixing or to the sediment resuspension occurring where the mixing reached the bottom. One of this process, or a combination of both, enriched the water column in silicate and phosphate, and altered significantly the stoichiometry in the center of the deep convection area. This alteration favored the local development of microphytoplankton in spring, whereas nanophytoplankton dominated neighboring locations where the convection reached the deep layer but not the bottom. This study shows that the convection process influences both winter nutrients distribution and spring phytoplankton distribution and community structure. Modifications of the convection spatial scale and intensity (i.e. convective mixing depth) is likely to have strong consequences on phytoplankton community structure and distribution in the NWM, and thus on the marine food web.
In-situ oceanographic measurements were made before and after the passage of Typhoon Wutip in September 2013 over the northern South China Sea. The surface geostrophic circulation over this region inferred from satellite altimetry data features a large-size anti-cyclonic eddy, a small-size cyclonic eddy, and smaller-size eddies during this period. Significant typhoon-induced changes occurred in the partial pressure of CO2 at the sea surface (pCO2sea) during Wutip. Before the passage of Wutip, pCO2sea was about 392.92±1.83, 390.31±0.50, and 393.04±4.31 μatm over the cyclonic eddy water, the anti-cyclonic eddy water, and areas outside two eddies, respectively. The entire study region showed a carbon source (1.31±0.46 mmol CO2 m−2 d−1) before Wutip. In the cyclonic eddy water after Wutip, high sea surface salinity (SSS), low sea surface temperature (SST), and high pCO2sea (413.05±7.56 μatm) made this area to be a carbon source (3.30±0.75 mmol CO2 m−2 d−1). In the anti-cyclonic eddy water after Wutip, both the SSS and SST were lower, pCO2sea was also lower (383.03±3.72 μatm), and this area became a carbon sink (-0.11±0.55 mmol CO2 m−2 d−1), in comparison with the pre-typhoon conditions. The typhoon-induced air-sea CO2 flux reached about 0.03 mmol CO2 m−2 d−1. Noticeable spatial variations in pCO2sea were affected mainly by the typhoon-induced mixing/upwelling and vertical stratifications. This study suggests that the local air-sea CO2 flux in the study region was affected significantly by oceanographic conditions during the typhoon.
We studied small scale (50 m to 5 km) sea ice deformation from ship radar images recorded during the N-ICE2015 campaign. The campaign consisted of 4 consecutive drifting ice stations (Floes 1 to 4) north of Svalbard, with a total duration of nearly 5 months. Deformation was calculated using 5 different time intervals from 10 min to 24 h, and the deformation rate was found to depend strongly on the time scale. Floes 1 to 3 had a mean deformation rate within the range of 0.06 to 0.07 h– 1 with the interval of 10 min, and 0.03 to 0.04 h– 1 with the interval of 1 h. Floe 4 represented marginal ice zone (MIZ) with very high deformation rate, 0.14/0.08 h– 1 with the interval of 10 min/1 h. Deep in the ice pack, high deformation rates occurred only with high wind and drift speed, while in MIZ they were found also during calm conditions. The deformation rates were found to follow power law scaling with respect to length and time scale even on this small scales and in small domain (15 km × 15 km). The length scale dependence of deformation rate depends on the time scale: the power law scaling exponent β of the whole study period decreases from 0.82 to 0.52 with the time interval increasing from 10 min to 24 h. Ship radar images reveal the importance of the deformation history of the ice pack, since the deformation events were initialized along the lines of previous damages.
Coral reefs have suffered remarkable declines worldwide. Nutrient over-enrichment is considered to be one of the primary local causes. The Luhuitou fringing reef in southern China is a well-known tourist destination that is subject to enormous coastal renovation. The mean δ13C, δ15N value and carbon over nitrogen ratio (C/N) of particulate organic matter were - 21.56 ± 1.94 ‰, 7.04 ± 3.81 ‰ and 5.81 ± 1.86, respectively, suggesting mixed sources of carbon and nitrogen. The IsoError calculations suggested that marine phytoplankton and marine benthic algae dominated the majority of carbon sources, while anthropogenic and terrestrial organic nitrogen dominated the nitrogen sources. A tendency towards greater terrestrial detritus and anthropogenic-derived discharges was found during dry seasons, and greater marine-derived organic matter during wet seasons. These results demonstrated the existence of anthropogenic influences and high dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations and C/N ratios. Anthropogenic nutrient discharge moderated nitrogen limitation, whereas phosphorus became more important to the reef ecosystem. Despite the marine carbon sources dominated, freshwater and terrestrial derived organic carbon sources were also very important. Meanwhile, anthropogenic and terrestrial organic nitrogen sources were dominant. Therefore, pollution from more extensive region and anthropogenic activities from riverine sewage discharges adjacent to reefs should be focused to effectively reduce human-derived nutrients on reefs.
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is continually monitored along 26°N by the RAPID-MOCHA array. Measurements from this array show a 6.7 Sv seasonal cycle for the AMOC, with a 5.9 Sv contribution from the upper-mid-ocean. Recent studies argue that the dynamics of the eastern Atlantic is the main driver for this seasonal cycle; specifically, Rossby waves excited south of the Canary Islands. Using inverse modelling, hydrographic, mooring and altimetry data, we describe the seasonal cycle of the ocean mass transport around the Canary Islands and at the eastern boundary, under the influence of the African slope, where eastern component of the RAPID-MOCHA array is situated. We find a seasonal cycle of -4.1±0.5 Sv for the oceanic region of the Canary Current, and +3.7±0.4 Sv at the eastern boundary. This seasonal cycle along the eastern boundary is in agreement with the seasonal cycle of the AMOC, that requires the lowest contribution to the transport in the upper-mid-ocean to occur in fall. However, we demonstrate that the linear Rossby wave model used previously to explain the seasonal cycle of the AMOC is not robust, since it is extremely sensitive to the choice of the zonal range of the wind stress curl and produces the same results with a Rossby wave speed of zero. We demonstrate that the seasonal cycle of the eastern boundary is due to the recirculation of the Canary Current and to the seasonal cycle of the poleward flow that characterizes the eastern boundaries of the oceans.
We present an investigation of the performance of the ECMWF coupled atmosphere-waves-ocean model for different ocean and atmosphere resolutions on a series of tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific with the aim to better understand the coupled feedback mechanisms in these exterme conditions.
For some of the test cases, we only find little impact of coupling the atmosphere to the ocean, while in others, we observe a very large impact. To further understand these differences, we have selected two tropical cyclones (TCs) as case studies: TC Haiyan (with small impact of coupling) and TC Neoguri (with large impact of coupling). The comparison between these two cases suggests that the upper ocean stratification is the key in determining the strength of the coupled feedback. A strong coupled feedback is found whenever the ocean heat content of the upper layer is low while a very weak coupled feedback is found whenever the ocean has a thick warm mixed layer.
The oceanographic response to tropical cyclones for the two storms has been compared to sea surface temperature and derived surface currents from drifting buoys and to subsurface observations from Argo and ship launched XBT's. These comparisons show that we are able to realistically reproduce the atmospheric and oceanographic interaction during tropical cyclone conditions which gives us confidence that the coupled modelling system is physically sound.
In June 2013, a glider equipped with oxygen and fluorescence sensors has been used to extensively sample an anticyclonic Submesoscale Coherent Vortex (SCV) in the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean Sea). Those measurements are complemented by full-depth CTD casts (T, S, Oxygen) and water samples documenting nutrients and phytoplankton pigments within the SCV and outside. The SCV has a very homogeneous core of oxygenated waters between 300 m and 1200 m formed 4.5 months earlier during the winter deep convection event. It has a strong dynamical signature with peak velocities at 700 m depth of 13.9 cm s-1 in cyclogeostrophic balance. The eddy has a small radius of 6.2 km corresponding to high Rossby number of −0.45. The vorticity at the eddy center reaches −0.8f. Cross-stream isopycnic diffusion of tracers between the eddy core and the surroundings is found to be very limited due to dynamical barriers set by the SCV associated with a diffusivity coefficient of about 0.2 m2 s-1. The deep core is nutrients-depleted with concentrations of nitrate, phosphate and silicate 13–18% lower than the rich surrounding waters. However, the nutriclines are shifted of about 20–50 m toward the surface thus increasing the nutrients availability for phytoplankton. Chlorophyll-a concentrations at the deep chlorophyll maximum are subsequently about twice bigger as compared to outside. Pigments further reveal the predominance of nanophytoplankton inside the eddy and an enhancement of the primary productivity. This study demonstrate the important impact of post-convective SCVs on nutrients distribution and phytoplankton community, as well as on the subsequent primary production and carbon sequestration.
It is well known that river discharges, winds, ocean currents, and tides are major dynamical factors that determine the distribution and extension of the Changjiang plume (CP) in the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS). Using observations and numerical experiments, this study demonstrates that, in addition to these factors, typhoons in the YECS also play a crucial role in the extension of the CP during the summer season. The hydrographic data observed at the Ieodo Ocean Research Station (IORS) and by a research vessel during the period of Typhoons Ewiniar (0603) and Dianmu (1004) showed that the typhoon-induced strong vertical mixing modified spatial distribution of the CP significantly, resulting in the delay of the CP's extension by as much as up to 20 days. A series of numerical experiments for Typhoon Dianmu also showed that the typhoon plays a blocking role for the extension of CP for up to 17 days through the vertical mixing process and the change of background winds. In particular, it is found that the delay due to Dianmu in 2010 contributed to the avoidance of potential mass mortality of marine life by preventing the low-salinity water from spreading to the aquaculture regions near Jeju Island.
The link between equatorial Atlantic Ocean variability and the coastal region of Angola-Namibia is investigated at interannual time scales from 1998 to 2012. An index of equatorial Kelvin wave activity is defined based on Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA). Along the equator, results show a significant correlation between interannual PIRATA monthly dynamic height anomalies, altimetric monthly Sea Surface Height Anomalies (SSHA) and SSHA calculated with an Ocean Linear Model. This allows us to interpret PIRATA records in terms of equatorial Kelvin waves. Estimated phase speed of eastward propagations from PIRATA equatorial mooring remains in agreement with the linear theory, emphasizing the dominance of the second baroclinic mode. Systematic analysis of all strong interannual equatorial SSHA shows that they precede by 1-2 months extreme interannual Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies along the African coast, which confirms the hypothesis that major warm and cold events in the Angola-Benguela current system are remotely forced by ocean atmosphere interactions in the equatorial Atlantic. Equatorial wave dynamics is at the origin of their developments. Wind anomalies in the Western Equatorial Atlantic force equatorial downwelling and upwelling Kelvin waves that propagate eastward along the equator and then polewards along the African coast triggering extreme warm and cold events respectively. A proxy index based on linear ocean dynamics appears to be significantly more correlated with coastal variability than an index based on wind variability. Results show a seasonal phasing, with significantly higher correlations between our equatorial index and coastal SSTA in October-April season.
Iron (Fe) is an essential nutrient for marine phytoplankton and it constitutes an important element in the marine carbon cycle in the ocean. This study examined the mechanisms controlling seasonal variation of dissolved Fe (dFe) in the western subarctic North Pacific (WSNP), using an ocean general circulation model coupled with a simple biogeochemical model incorporating a dFe cycle fed by two major sources (atmospheric dust and continental shelf sediment). The model reproduced the seasonal cycle of observed concentrations of dFe and macro nutrients at the surface in the Oyashio region with maxima in winter (February–March) and minima in summer (July–September), although the simulated seasonal amplitudes are a half of the observed values. Analysis of the mixed-layer dFe budget indicated that both local vertical entrainment and lateral advection are primary contributors to the wintertime increase in dFe concentration. In early winter, strengthened northwesterly winds excite southward Ekman transport and Ekman upwelling over the western subarctic gyre, transporting dFe-rich water southward. In mid- to late winter, the southward western boundary current of the subarctic gyre and the outflow from the Sea of Okhotsk also bring dFe-rich water to the Oyashio region. The contribution of atmospheric dust to the dFe budget is several times smaller than these ocean transport processes in winter. These results suggest that the westerly wind-induced Ekman transport and gyre circulation systematically influence the seasonal cycle of WSNP surface dFe concentration.
In spring 2015, we observed an extensive phytoplankton bloom of Phaeocystis pouchetii, with chlorophyll a concentrations up to 7.5 mg m−3, under compact snow-covered Arctic sea ice at 80-81˚N during the Norwegian young sea ICE (N-ICE2015) expedition. We investigated the influence of the under-ice bloom on inherent optical properties (IOPs) of the upper ocean. Absorption and scattering in the upper 20 m of the water column at visible wavebands increased threefold and tenfold, respectively, relative to pre-bloom conditions. The scattering-to-absorption ratio during the Phaeocystis under-ice bloom was higher than in previous Arctic studies investigating diatom blooms. During the bloom, absorption by colored dissolved organic matter (at 375 nm), seemingly of autochthonous origin, doubled. Total absorption by particles (at 440 nm), dominated by phytoplankton (> 90%), increased tenfold. Measured absorption and scattering in the water were used as inputs for a 1D coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean radiative transfer model (AccuRT) to investigate effects of altered IOPs on the under-ice light field. Multiple scattering between sea ice and phytoplankton in the ocean led to an increase in scalar irradiance in the photosynthetically active radiation range (Eo(PAR)) at the ice-ocean interface by 6–7% compared to pre-bloom situation. This increase could have a positive feedback on ice-algal and under-ice phytoplankton productivity. The ratio between Eo(PAR) and downwelling planar irradiance (Ed(PAR)) below sea ice reached 1.85. Therefore, the use of Ed(PAR) might significantly underestimate the amount of PAR available for photosynthesis underneath sea ice. Our findings could help to improve light parameterizations in primary production models.
Recent studies suggest that the thickness of Winter Water (WW), that is, water with potential temperature below ∼-1°C located below Antarctic Surface Water and above Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is critical in determining the ice shelf melt rate, especially for the Pine Island Glacier (PIG). Existing model studies, however, misrepresent WW thickness and properties in the Amundsen Sea (AS). Here, we adjust a small number of model parameters in a regional Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model in order to reproduce properties and thickness of WW and CDW close to observations, with significant improvement for WW compared to previous studies. The cost, which is defined as weighted model-data difference squared, is reduced by 23%. Although a previous modeling study points out that the local surface heat loss upstream from Pine Island Polynya could be the reason for the observed 2012 PIG melt decline and WW thickening, they did not show WW freshening, which was observed at the same time. Model sensitivity experiments for surface heat loss, PIG melt rate, and precipitation fail to replicate WW freshening concurrent with PIG melt decline, implying that these processes can not fully explain the observed PIG melt decrease.
The co-variability of the Atlantic Water (AW) branches in the Nordic Seas is investigated over the period 1979-2012 using an eddy permitting model. A noticeable circulation change is found in the mid-1990s. Prior to the mid-1990s, the leading mode of variability defines a large scale pattern, with concomitant variations in the Atlantic Water (AW) inflow in the Faroe-Shetland Channel (FSC), the Norwegian Atlantic Slope Current (NwASC), the AW inflow to the Barents Sea and the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC). After the mid-1990s, the co-variability between the NwASC and the AW inflow in both the FSC and the WSC is lost. Consequently, the northern Barents Sea circulation anomaly pattern, which is present throughout the full period, becomes the leading mode of circulation in the northern Nordic Seas after the mid-1990s. The circulation change of the mid-1990s appears to be linked to a weakening of the southwesterly wind anomalies in Norwegian Sea, as the northern center of action of the first mode of sea level pressure (NAO) weakens. Passive tracer experiments suggest that this circulation change may be accompanied by increased heat transfer from the AW current to the interior Nordic Seas. This in turn may have limited the influence of the recently observed AW warming in the Iceland-Scotland Passage on the NwASC downstream.
The Kuroshio Extension (KE) jet transitions between stable and unstable states on interannual time scales. Cross-jet eddy mixing in the two states is contrasted in the KE region (28° – 40°N, 125 – 165°E), using a global eddying 0.1° configuration of the Parallel Ocean Program with online numerical particles. The four-year period chosen (June 1994 to May 1998) covers a full cycle of the stable state, unstable state and the transition period. Large values of cross-jet eddy diffusivities within the KE jet are concentrated in the upper 1000m. In the upper ocean, elevated cross-jet mixing within the KE jet is mainly concentrated in the downstream part of the KE jet, where the jet is weak but eddy activity is strong. The simulated time-mean KE jet is more intense and extends further east in the stable state than in the unstable state. Consequently, strong cross-jet mixing within the KE jet is located west of 150oE during June 1996-May 1997 (a typical unstable state), but east of 150oE during June 1995-May 1996 (a typical stable state). However, average mixing within the KE jet is indistinguishable in the typical stable and unstable states. In the deep ocean, mixing is strongly influenced by topography, and thus their horizontal structures have less inter-annual variability than in the upper ocean. One caveat is that results here cover one representative cycle of the two states. To obtain the climate mean mixing structures for the stable or unstable state, one would need numerical output covering a period much longer than four years.
Five latent heat flux (LHF) products are evaluated based on in situ observations in the South China Sea (SCS), including the ECWMF ERA-Interim (ERA-I), the NCEP2, the Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes (OAFlux), the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA55), and the TropFlux datasets. The results show that there are good correlations between the LHF products and observations, ranging from 0.68 to 0.74. However, mean biases of -8 to 40 W m−2 exist in the LHF products with respect to the observations. For root-mean-square errors, the OAFlux dataset is the closest to the observations, followed by ERA-I and TropFlux, while the NCEP2 dataset shows significant overestimation. It is found that the biases in the near-surface specific humidity are most correlated with the biases in the LHF products, followed by the biases in the near-surface wind speed, air temperature and sea surface temperature. The biases in the LHF products have a prominent seasonal variation that is 25 W m−2 higher in boreal winter than in summer. Using the thermal equation, it is shown that the tendency errors of the mixed-layer temperature estimated by the biases in the LHF products vary from -2.0 to 3.5°C/month in the SCS. When all of the products are averaged, the errors are reduced to a range of -0.7 to 1.5°C/month. It is noteworthy that the errors in summer are more obvious than those in winter, since a thinner mixed layer in the summer can amplify the effect of even a small bias in the LHF.
The surface ocean hydrological cycle is explored based on ∼300 new δ18O and δD measurements from surface waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea over the period 2010-2016. Our approach combines these surface observations with salinity (S) and stable isotope measurements of atmospheric water vapor. The distinct regional S-δ distributions are used to identify different surface water masses and their horizontal advection. Moreover, based on assumptions on the δ-S characteristics of seawater sources and the isotope composition of the evaporative (δe) and meteoric water (δMW) fluxes, the δ-S distribution is used to indicate the relative importance of evaporation (E) and meteoric water inputs (MW). Here, δe is estimated from the Craig and Gordon's equation using 120 days of measurements of the ambient air above the Atlantic Ocean collected during three cruises. To provide quantitative estimates of the E:MW ratio, we use the box model from Craig and Gordon (1965). This identifies the subtropical gyre as a region where E:MW ∼2 and the tropical ocean as a region were MW:E ∼2. Finally, we show that the δ18O-δD distribution is better represented by a linear fit than the δ-S relationship, even in basins governed by different hydrological processes. We interpret the δ18O-δD distribution considering the kinetic fractionation processes associated with evaporation. In the tropical region where MW exceeds E, the δ18O-δD distribution identifies the MW inputs from their kinetic signature, whereas in regions where E exceeds MW, the δ18O-δD distribution traces the humidity at the sea surface.
We have quantified absorption by CDOM, aCDOM(λ), particulate matter, ap(λ), algal pigments, aph(λ) and detrital material, aNAP(λ) coincident with chlorophyll a in sea ice and surface waters in winter and spring 2015 in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard. The aCDOM(λ) was low in contrast to other regions of the Arctic Ocean, while ap(λ) has the largest contribution to absorption variability in sea ice and surface waters. ap(443) was 1.4 to 2.8 times and 1.3 to 1.8 times higher than aCDOM(443) in surface water and sea ice, respectively. aph(λ) contributed 90% and 81% to ap(λ), in open leads and under ice waters column, and much less (53% to 74%) in sea ice, respectively. Both aCDOM(λ) and ap(λ) followed closely the vertical distribution of chlorophyll a in sea ice and the water column. We observed a 10-fold increase of the chlorophyll a concentration and nearly 2-fold increase in absorption at 443 nm in sea ice from winter to spring. The aCDOM(λ) dominated the absorption budget in the UV both in sea ice and surface waters. In the visible range, absorption was dominated by aph(λ), which contributed more than 50% and aCDOM(λ), which contributed 43% to total absorption in water column. Detrital absorption contributed significantly (33%) only in surface ice layer. Algae dynamics explained more than 90% variability in ap(λ) and aph(λ) in water column, but less than 70% in the sea ice. This study presents detailed absorption budget that is relevant for modeling of radiative transfer and primary production.
In this paper, periodic tide-current-driven banding in a sea-ice core is demonstrated as a measure of the growth rate of first-year sea ice at congelation-ice depths. The study was performed on a core from the eastern McMurdo Sound, exploiting the well-characterised tidal pattern at the site. It points the way to a technique for determining early-season ice growth rates from late-season cores, in areas where under-ice currents are known to be tidally-dominated and the ice is landfast, thus providing data for a time of year when thin ice prevents direct thickness (and therefore growth rate) measurements. The measured results were compared to the growth-vs.-depth predicted by a thermodynamic model.
Tidal currents and large-scale oceanic currents are known to modify ocean wave properties, causing extreme sea states that are a hazard to navigation. Recent advances in the understanding and modeling capability of open ocean currents have revealed the ubiquitous presence of eddies, fronts and filaments at scales 10 to 100∼km. Based on realistic numerical models, we show that these structures can be the main source of variability in significant wave heights at scales less than 200 km, including important variations down to 10 km. Model results are consistent with wave height variations along satellite altimeter tracks, resolved at scales larger than 50 km. The spectrum of significant wave heights is found to be of the order of 70〈Hs〉2/(g2〈Tm0,-1〉2) times the current spectrum, where〈Hs〉 is the spatially-averaged significant wave height, 〈Tm0,-1〉 is the energy-averaged period, and g is the gravity acceleration. This variability induced by currents has been largely overlooked in spite of its relevance for extreme wave heights and remote sensing.
Mixing and heat flux rates collected in the Eurasian Basin north of Svalbard during the N-ICE2015 drift expedition are presented. The observations cover the deep Nansen Basin, the Svalbard continental slope and the shallow Yermak Plateau from winter to summer. Mean quiescent winter heat flux values in the Nansen Basin are 2Wm−2 at the ice-ocean interface, 3Wm−2in the pycnocline and 1Wm−2 below the pycnocline. Large heat fluxes exceeding 300Wm−2 are observed in the late spring close to the surface over the Yermak Plateau. The data consisting of 588 microstructure profiles and 50 days of high-resolution under-ice turbulence measurements are used to quantify the impact of several forcing factors on turbulent dissipation and heat flux rates. Wind forcing increases turbulent dissipation seven times in the upper 50 m, and doubles heat fluxes at the ice-ocean interface. Presence of warm Atlantic Water close to the surface increases the temperature gradient in the water column, leading to enhanced heat flux rates within the pycnocline. Steep topography consistently enhances dissipation rates by a factor of four and episodically increases heat flux at depth. It is, however, the combination of storms and shallow Atlantic Water that leads to the highest heat flux rates observed: Ice-ocean interface heat fluxes average 100Wm−2 during peak events and are associated with rapid basal sea ice melt, reaching 25 cm, day−1.
We investigate mesoscale turbulence (10-1000 km) in the ocean winds over the Kuroshio Extension (28°N-40°N, 140°E-180°E) using the QuikSCAT dataset (November 1999 - October 2009). We calculate the second- (Djj) and third-order structure functions (Djjj) and the spatial variance (Vj) as a function of scale r (j = L,T denotes, respectively, the longitudinal (divergent) and transverse (vortical) component). The most interesting results of the analysis follow.
Although both Vj(r) and Djj(r) measure the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), we find that Vj(r) is the more robust measure. The spatial variance density has a broad peak near 450 km (close to the midlatitude Rossby radius of deformation). On interannual time scales, TKE correlates well with the El Niño 3.4 index.
According to turbulence theory, the kinetic energy cascades downscale (upscale) if DLLL(r) (also skewness SL =DLLL/) is negative (positive). Our results for the Kuroshio Extension are consistent with a downscale cascade (indicating convergence dominates). Furthermore, classical turbulence theory predicts that SL = -0.3 and independent of r; however, we find SL varies strongly with r, from -4 at small scales to -0.3 at large scales. This non-classical behaviour implies strong scale interaction, which we attribute to the rapid, and sometimes explosive, growth of storms in the region through baroclinic instability. Finally, we find that ST (a measure of cyclonic/anti-cyclonic asymmetry) is positive (cyclonic) and also varies strongly with r, from 4 at small scales to 0.5 at large scales. New turbulence models are needed to explain these results, and that will benefit Weather Prediction and climate modeling.
By the late 21st century, climate models project enhanced dynamic sea level (DSL) rise along the western boundary of the North Atlantic associated with a decline in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). In contrast, coastal DSL variability over the last few decades has been driven largely by local winds, with limited evidence for coupling to AMOC strength. The unclear forcing- and timescale-dependence of relationships between local winds, AMOC strength, and DSL obscures: 1) the validity of tide gauge-derived DSL gradients as a proxy of AMOC strength and 2) the assessment of climate model reliability. Here, we analyze these relationships in the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble (CESM-LE) over the 1920-2100 period. In CESM-LE, the amplitude of interannual to multidecadal DSL variability, and its along-coast correlation, are comparable to detrended annual mean tide gauge records. A "crossover timescale" of approximately 5-15 years partitions a local wind-driven coastal DSL regime from an overturning-related regime. Processes unrelated to either AMOC strength and local winds are important at interannual to decadal timescales. As external forcing increases in strength over the 21st century, DSL variability associated with the overturning circulation becomes dominant. While the largely externally-forced, AMOC-associated, component explains only 29±12% of DSL variance over the 1920-2010 period, it explains 89±3% of the variance in the 2011-2100 period. We discuss the implications of these results on the reliability of climate model projections of regional DSL, the use of coastal DSL as a proxy for AMOC, and the origins of multidecadal DSL variability.
In recent decades, high-spatial resolution ocean radar and satellite imagery measurements have revealed a complex tangle of submesoscale filaments and eddies, in the surface velocity, temperature and chlorophyll-a fields. We use a suite of high resolution data to characterize two counter-rotating, short-lived eddies formed at the front between the warm East Australian Current (EAC) and temperate coastal waters (30°S, Eastern Australia). In this region, submesoscale filaments and short-lived eddies are dynamically generated and decay at time scales of hours to days. Dominant cyclonic filaments of O(1) Rossby number formed along frontal jets and eddy boundaries, generating localized ageostrophic circulations at the submesoscale. Measurements of over-ocean wind direction and surface currents from high-frequency radars reveal the influence of the short-term, small-scale wind forcing on the surface circulation, enhancement of the horizontal shear, frontal jet destabilization and the generation and decay of the cyclonic eddy. By contrast, the anticyclonic eddy formation was most likely associated with EAC mesoscale instability and anticyclonic vorticity. Lagrangian tracks show that surface particles can be temporarily trapped in the eddies and frontal convergent zones, limiting their transport. Mixing between EAC-derived and coastal waters was increased along the frontal regions, and particles starting at the divergent regions around the eddies experienced significant dispersion at submesoscales. The cyclonic cold-core eddy entrained high chlorophyll-a shelf waters on its convergent side, suggesting spiral eddy cyclogenesis.
The Stokes drift in long baroclinic equatorial Rossby waves is investigated theoretically by using eigenfunction expansions in the vertical. These waves are non-dispersive and propagate westward along the equator. Particular attention is paid to the first baroclinic, first meridional Rossby wave mode which has been observed in the equatorial Pacific. It is demonstrated that the Stokes drift depends very much on the depth-variation of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency. Even more importantly, it is found that, for arbitrary stable stratification, the total zonal Stokes volume transport induced by the Rossby wave mode (1,1) is identically zero. The eastward drift due reflected wave energy in the form of internal equatorial Kelvin waves is also addressed. Due to the very long period of the incident Rossby wave mode (1,1), the reflected equatorial Kelvin wave must at least be a 2. mode component in the vertical. The corresponding Stokes drift only induces a minor change near the surface of the total westward drift velocity at the equator. The implication for the existence of compensating Rossby rip currents along the equator is discussed.
For the first time, the formation of Submesoscale Coherent Vortices (SCVs) during intermediate and deep convection events is documented in a realistic high resolution (1 km) numerical simulation of the oceanic circulation in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Winter intermediate and deep convection leads to the formation of anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies with lifetimes exceeding one year. By focusing on three typical eddies, the main characteristics of such vortices are discussed. The anticyclonic eddies are typical of SCVs observed in deep convection areas so far. They are characterized by a small radius (∼ 6.5 km) and orbital peak velocities of about 7 cm/s located at great depth (∼ 1500 m) or intermediate depth (∼ 500 m). The cyclonic vortices show very similar characteristics, such as a high Rossby number (∼ 0.4), but with surface-intensified structures. The long lifetimes of both anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies reflect very slow diffusive processes between their core and their surroundings and a strong resistance to external perturbations. These long-lived eddies are found to participate in the spreading of a significant portion (from 15 to 35%) of the convected waters in the Gulf of Lions and contribute to the ventilation of the deep basin.
Since late 1978, Antarctic sea-ice extent in the East Pacific has retreated persistently over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas in warm seasons, but expanded over the Ross and Amundsen Seas in cold seasons, while almost opposite seasonal trends have occurred in the Atlantic over the Weddell Sea. By using a surface-forced ocean and sea-ice coupled model, we show that regional wind-driven ocean dynamics played a key role in driving these trends. In the East Pacific, the strengthening Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerlies in the region enhanced the Ekman upwelling of warm upper Circumpolar Deep Water and increased the northward Ekman transport of cold Antarctic surface water. The associated surface ocean warming south of 68°S and the cooling north of 68°S directly contributed to the retreat of sea ice in warm seasons and the expansion in cold seasons, respectively. In the Atlantic, the poleward shifting SH westerlies in the region strengthened the northern branch of the Weddell Gyre, which in turn increased the meridional thermal gradient across it as constrained by the thermal wind balance. Ocean heat budget analysis further suggests that the strengthened northern branch of the Weddell Gyre acted as a barrier against the poleward ocean heat transport, and thus produced anomalous heat divergence within the Weddell Gyre and anomalous heat convergence north of the gyre. The associated cooling within the Weddell Gyre and the warming north of the gyre contributed to the expansion of sea ice in warm seasons and the retreat in cold seasons, respectively.
The North Western Mediterranean Sea exhibits recurrent and significant autumnal and spring phytoplankton blooms. The existence of these two blooms coincide with typical temperate dynamics. To determine the potential control of physical and biogeochemical factors on these phytoplankton blooms, data from a multiplatform approach (combining ships, Argo and BGC-Argo floats, and bio-optical gliders) were analyzed in association with satellite observations in 2012-2013. The satellite framework allowed a simultaneous analysis over the whole annual cycle of in situ observations of mixed layer depth, photosynthetical available radiation, particle backscattering, nutrients (nitrate and silicate) and chlorophyll-a concentrations. During the year 2012-2013, satellite ocean color observations, confirmed by in situ data, have revealed the existence of two areas (or bioregions) with comparable autumnal blooms but contrasting spring blooms. In both bioregions, the ratio of the euphotic zone (defined as the isolume 0.415 mol photons m−2 d−1, Z0.415) and the MLD identified the initiation of the autumnal bloom, as well as the maximal annual increase in [Chl-a] in spring. In fact, the autumnal phytoplankton bloom might be initiated by mixing of the summer shallowing deep chlorophyll maximum, while the spring restratification (when Z0.415/MLD ratio became > 1) might induce surface phytoplankton production that largely overcomes the losses. Finally, winter deep convection events that took place in one of the bioregions induced higher net accumulation rate of phytoplankton in spring associated with a diatom-dominated phytoplankton community principally. We suggest that very deep winter MLD lead to an increase in surface silicates availability, which favored the development of diatoms.
Large-eddy simulation (LES) is used to investigate how turbulence in the wind-driven ocean mixed layer erodes the stratification of barrier layers. The model consists of a stratified Ekman layer that is driven by a surface wind. Simulations at a wide range of N0/f are performed to quantify the effect of turbulence and stratification on the entrainment rate. Here, N0 is the buoyancy frequency in the barrier layer and f is the Coriolis parameter. The evolution of the mixed layer follows two stages: a rapid initial deepening and a late-time growth at a considerably slower rate. During the first stage, the mixed layer thickens to the depth that is proportional to where u* is the frictional velocity. During the second stage, the turbulence in the mixed layer continues to entrain further into the barrier layer, and the turbulent length scale is shown to scale with u*/N0, independent of f. The late-time entrainment rate E follows the law of where Ri* is the Richardson number. The exponent is identical and the coefficient of 0.035 is much smaller relative to the corresponding power law in the non-rotating boundary layer. Simulations using the KPP model (version applicable to this simple case without additional effects of Langmuir turbulence or surface buoyancy flux) also yield the entrainment scaling of ; however, the proportionality coefficient varies with the stratification. The structure of the Ekman current is examined to illustrate the strong effect of stratification in the limit of large N0/f. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
We present measurements of along and across-shore sediment transport in a region of the Dutch coast 10 kilometers north of the Rhine River mouth. This section of the coast is characterized by strong vertical density stratification because it is within the mid-field region of the Rhine region of freshwater influence, where processes typical of the far-field, such as tidal straining, are modified by the passage of distinct freshwater lenses at the surface. The experiment captured two storms, and a wide range of wind, wave, tidal and stratification conditions. We focus primarily on the mechanisms leading to cross-shore sediment flux at a mooring location in 12m of water, which are responsible for the exchange of sediment between the near-shore and the inner shelf. Net transport during storms was directed offshore and influenced by cross-shelf winds, while net transport during spring tides was determined by the mean state of stratification. Tidal straining dominated during neap tides; however, cross-shore transport was negligible due to small sediment concentrations. The passage of freshwater lenses manifested as strong pulses of offshore transport primarily during spring tides. We observe that both barotropic and baroclinic processes are relevant for cross-shore transport at depth and, since transport rates due to these competing processes were similar, the net transport direction will be determined by the frequency and sequencing of these modes of transport. Based on our observations, we find that wind- and wave-driven transport during storms tends move fine sediment offshore, while calmer, more stratified conditions move it back onshore. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Satellite ocean color observations revealed that unusually deep convection events in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2013 led to an increased phytoplankton biomass during the spring bloom over a large area of the North-Western Mediterranean Sea (NWM). Here we investigate the effects of these events on the seasonal phytoplankton community structure, we quantify their influence on primary production, and we discuss the potential biogeochemical impact. For this purpose, we compiled in situ phytoplankton pigment data from five ship surveys performed in the NWM and from monthly cruises at a fixed station in the Ligurian Sea. We derived primary production rates from a light-photosynthesis model applied to these in situ data. Our results confirm that the maximum phytoplankton biomass during the spring bloom is larger in years associated with intense deep convection events (+ 51%). During these enhanced spring blooms, the contribution of diatoms to total phytoplankton biomass increased (+ 33%), as well as the primary production rate (+ 115%). The occurrence of a highly productive bloom is also related to an increase in the phytoplankton bloom area (+ 155%), and in the relative contribution of diatoms to primary production (+ 63%). Therefore, assuming that deep convection in the NWM could be significantly weakened by future climate changes, substantial decreases in the spring production of organic carbon and of its export to deep waters can be expected. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Arctic sea ice has displayed significant thinning as well as an increase in drift speed in recent years. Taken together this suggests an associated rise in sea ice deformation rate. A winter and spring expedition to the sea ice covered region north of Svalbard – the Norwegian young sea ICE 2015 expedition (N-ICE2015) - gave an opportunity to deploy extensive buoy arrays and to monitor the deformation of the first- and second-year ice now common in the majority of the Arctic Basin. During the 5-month long expedition, the ice cover underwent several strong deformation events, including a powerful storm in early February that damaged the ice cover irreversibly. The values of total deformation measured during N-ICE2015 exceed previously measured values in the Arctic Basin at similar scales: At 100 km scale, N-ICE2015 values averaged above 0.1, day−1, compared to rates of 0.08 day −1 or less for previous buoy arrays. The exponent of the power law between the deformation length scale and total deformation developed over the season from 0.37 to 0.54 with an abrupt increase immediately after the early February storm, indicating a weakened ice cover with more free drift of the sea ice floes. Our results point to a general increase in deformation associated with the younger and thinner Arctic sea ice and to a potentially destructive role of winter storms. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
We performed measurements of carbon dioxide fugacity (fCO2) in the surface water under Arctic sea ice from January to June 2015 during the Norwegian young sea ICE (N-ICE2015) expedition. Over this period, the ship drifted with four different ice floes and covered the deep Nansen Basin, the slopes north of Svalbard and the Yermak Plateau. This unique winter-to-spring dataset includes the first winter-time under-ice water fCO2 observations in this region. The observed under-ice fCO2 ranged between 315 µatm in winter and 153 µatm in spring, hence was undersaturated relative to the atmospheric fCO2. Although the sea ice partly prevented direct CO2 exchange between ocean and atmosphere, frequently occurring leads and breakup of the ice sheet promoted sea-air CO2 fluxes. The CO2 sink varied between 0.3 and 86 mmol C m−2 d−1, depending strongly on the open-water fractions (OW) and storm events. The maximum sea-air CO2 fluxes occurred during storm events in February and June. In winter, the main drivers of the change in under-ice water fCO2 were dissolution of CaCO3 (ikaite) and vertical mixing. In June, in addition to these processes, primary production and sea-air CO2 fluxes were important. The cumulative loss due to CaCO3 dissolution of 0.7 mol C m−2 in the upper 10 m played a major role in sustaining the undersaturation of fCO2 during the entire study. The relative effects of the total fCO2 change due to CaCO3 dissolution was 38%, primary production 26%, vertical mixing 16%, sea-air CO2 fluxes 16%, and temperature and salinity insignificant. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Seven ice mass balance instruments deployed near 83°N on different first-year and second-year ice floes, representing variable snow and ice conditions, documented the evolution of snow and ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard in Jan-Mar 2015. Frequent profiles of temperature and thermal diffusivity proxy were recorded to distinguish changes in snow depth and ice thickness with 2 cm vertical resolution. Four instruments documented flooding and snow-ice formation. Flooding was clearly detectable in the simultaneous changes in thermal diffusivity proxy, increased temperature and heat propagation through the underlying ice. Slush then progressively transformed into snow-ice. Flooding resulted from two different processes; i) after storm-induced break-up of snow-loaded floes and ii) after loss of buoyancy due to basal ice melt. In the case of break-up, when the ice was cold and not permeable, rapid flooding, probably due to lateral intrusion of seawater, led to slush and snow-ice layers at the ocean freezing temperature (-1.88°C). After the storm the instruments documented basal sea-ice melt over warm Atlantic waters and ocean-to-ice heat flux peaked at up to 400 Wm−2. The warm ice was then permeable and flooding was more gradual probably involving vertical intrusion of brines and led to colder slush and snow-ice (-3°C). The N-ICE2015 campaign provided the first documentation of significant flooding and snow-ice formation in the Arctic ice pack as the slush partially refroze. Snow-ice formation may become a more-frequently observed process in a thinner-ice Arctic. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Oceanographic observations from the Eurasian Basin north of Svalbard collected between January and June 2015 from the N-ICE2015 drifting expedition are presented. The unique winter observations are a key contribution to existing climatologies of the Arctic Ocean, and show a ∼100m deep winter mixed layer likely due to high sea ice growth rates in local leads. Current observations for the upper ∼200m show mostly a barotropic flow, enhanced over the shallow Yermak Plateau. The two branches of inflowing Atlantic Water are partly captured, confirming that the outer Yermak Branch follows the perimeter of the plateau, and the inner Svalbard Branch the coast. Atlantic Water observed to be warmer and shallower than in the climatology, is found directly below the mixed layer down to 800m depth, and is warmest along the slope, while properties inside the basin are quite homogeneous. From late May onwards, the drift was continually close to the ice edge and a thinner surface mixed layer and shallower Atlantic Water coincided with significant sea ice melt being observed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The huge freshwater flux of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM; May–October) gives rise to strong salinity stratification in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), causing a shallow mixed layer and a thick barrier layer, which potentially affects intraseasonal oscillations of the monsoon (MISOs). In this study, intraseasonal variability of the mixed-layer depth (MLD) and barrier layer thickness (BLT) is investigated using in situ observations from Argo floats and moored buoys and an ocean general circulation model (OGCM). The average MLD in the BoB is typically 20–30 m during the ISM, while the BLT increases from ∼10 m in May–June to 20–40 m in September–October. MISOs induce in-phase variations in MLD and isothermal layer depth (ILD), both of which are deepened by 8–15 m during MISO active phase, while the change of BLT is small and within the error range of Argo data sampling. In the northern (southern) bay, BLT increases by ∼5 m (2 m) during MISOs owing to a larger deepening of ILD than MLD. OGCM experiments are performed to understand the underlying mechanism. In the BoB intraseasonal variations of MLD, ILD and BLT arise largely from ocean internal instability, whereas those induced by MISOs are weaker. The in-phase variations of MLD and ILD during MISOs are induced by different processes. The MLD deepening is primarily caused by wind stress forcing, while the ILD deepening is driven by surface heat fluxes via surface cooling. The limited variability of BLT is due to the offsetting of different forcing processes.
The Indian summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillations (MISOs) induce pronounced intraseasonal sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the Bay of Bengal (BoB), which has important feedbacks to atmospheric convection. An ocean general circulation model (OGCM) is employed to investigate the upper-ocean processes affecting intraseasonal SST variability and its feedback to the MISO convection. In the BoB, the MISO induces intraseasonal SST variability predominantly through surface heat flux forcing with comparable contributions from shortwave radiation and turbulent heat flux, and to a much smaller extent through wind-driven ocean mixed layer entrainment. The ocean salinity stratification, represented by mixed layer depth (MLD) and barrier layer thickness (BLT), has a strong control on SST but weak impact on convection of the MISO. The MLD is critical for the amplitude of SST response to various forcing processes, while the BLT mainly affects entrainment by determining the temperature difference between the mixed layer and the water below. From May to mid-June, the shallow MLD and thin barrier layer greatly enhance intraseasonal SST anomalies, which can amplify convection fluctuations of the MISO through air-sea interaction and leads to intense but short-duration postconvection break spells. When either the MLD or the BLT is large, intraseasonal SSTs tend to be weak. Further investigation reveals that freshwater flux of the monsoon gives rise to the shallow MLD and thick barrier layer, and its overall effect on intraseasonal SSTs is a 20% enhancement. These results provide implications for improving the simulation and forecast of the MISO in climate models.
The influence of rotation on the structure and propagation of internal tides around O'ahu, Hawai'i is investigated using in situ observations and a tidally forced, primitive equation model with realistic bathymetry and stratification. Particular attention is given to the diurnal internal tide, which largely has been de-emphasized in previous studies of the region because of the dominance of the semidiurnal internal tide but has been determined by recent studies to be a significant contributor to baroclinic variability. Though both diurnal and semidiurnal internal tides are generated primarily over Ka'ena Ridge to the northwest of the island, the diurnal internal tide propagates clockwise around the island as an imperfectly trapped wave, while the semidiurnal internal tide propagates away from the ridge, unaffected by rotation. The diurnal and semidiurnal internal tides fall into the superinertial frequency range; however, the diurnal frequency apparently is sufficiently close to inertial (∼ 1.4f) for rotation to affect internal tide propagation. The in situ observations support the model finding that diurnal trapping provides the primary source of baroclinic variability along the eastern coast of the island, a stretch of coastline otherwise sheltered from the internal tide energy generated over the Hawaiian Ridge. The findings in Hawai'i suggest that coastal trapping of superinertial internal tides may be a significant source of variability and mixing in other nearshore systems around the world.
Conventional tsunami theories suggest that earthquakes with significant vertical motions are more likely to generate tsunamis. In tsunami models, the vertical seafloor elevation is directly transferred to the sea-surface as the only initial condition. However, evidence from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake indicates otherwise; the vertical seafloor uplift was only 3–5 m, too small to account for the resultant tsunami. Surprisingly, the horizontal displacement was undeniably larger than anyone's expectation; about 60 m at the frontal wedge of the fault plate, the largest slip ever recorded by in situ instruments. The question is whether the horizontal motion of seafloor slopes had enhanced the tsunami to become as destructive as observed. In this study, we provide proof: (1) combining various measurements from the 2011 Tohoku event, we show that the earthquake transferred a total energy of 3.1e + 15 joule to the ocean, in which the potential energy (PE) due to the vertical seafloor elevation (including seafloor uplift/subsidence plus the contribution from the horizontal displacement) was less than a half, while the kinetic energy (KE) due to the horizontal displacement velocity of the continental slope contributed a majority portion; (2) using two modern state-of-the-art wave flumes and a three-dimensional tsunami model, we have reproduced the source energy and tsunamis consistent with observations, including the 2004 Sumatra event. Based on the unified source energy formulation, we offer a competing theory to explain why some earthquakes generate destructive tsunamis, while others do not.
Douglas Channel, a deep fjord on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, is the main waterway in the fjord system that connects the town of Kitimat to Queen Charlotte Sound and Hecate Strait. A 200 m depth sill divides Douglas Channel into an outer and an inner basin. This study examines the low-frequency (from seasonal to meteorological bands) circulation in Douglas Channel from data collected at three moorings deployed during 2013–2015. The deep flows are dominated by a yearly renewal that takes place from May/June to early September. A dense bottom layer with a thickness of 100 m that cascades through the system at the speed of 0.1–0.2 m s−1, which is consistent with gravity currents. Estuarine flow dominates the circulation above the sill depth, and the observed landward net volume flux suggests that it is necessary to include the entire complex channel network to fully understand the estuarine circulation in the system. The influence of the wind forcing on the subtidal circulation is not only at the surface, but also at middepth. The along-channel wind dominates the surface current velocity fluctuations and the sea level response to the wind produces a velocity signal at 100–120 m in the counter-wind direction. Overall, the circulation in the seasonal and the meteorological bands is a mix of estuarine flow, direct wind-driven flow, and the barotropic and baroclinic responses to changes to the surface pressure gradient caused by the wind stress.
We present a systematic analysis of generation mechanisms for exchange flows in partially stratified estuaries using water column (1DV) and width-averaged (2DV) numerical models. We focus on exchange flows generated by eddy viscosity-shear covariance (ESCO). We identify two distinctly different physical mechanisms. The first, tidal ESCO circulation, results from interactions between the barotropic tide and temporal variations of the eddy viscosity. While this flow is mostly generated by direct interactions between the tide and eddy viscosity variations at the main tidal frequency, a similarly important contribution can be attributed to indirect interactions. These are more complex interactions involving eddy viscosity variations at other frequencies than the main tidal frequency (e.g., M4). The second mechanism is called gravitational ESCO circulation. This results from an amplification of the gravitational circulation through indirect interactions between the gravitational circulation and temporal variations of the eddy viscosity at any time scale. Tidal and gravitational ESCO circulations are generated by different mechanisms and have a different dependency on the phase and frequency of eddy viscosity variations and the density gradient. The relative contributions of gravitational circulation and tidal and gravitational ESCO circulation to the exchange flow are typically 1/3 each in tidally energetic well-mixed or partially stratified estuaries. The results are generalized using an idealized width-averaged model of the Scheldt River estuary. This model confirms the results of the water column model and additionally shows that temporal variations of turbulence not captured in the water column model have a significant effect on the exchange flow.
Waves, current, and sediment transport processes in major storms on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were simulated using integrated wave, three-dimensional tide and circulation, and combined-flow sediment transport models. While the tidal and nontidal currents are generally low and cause little sediment transport, storm-induced waves and currents enhance bed shear velocity by more than 5 times and cause significant sediment transport over the entire Grand Banks. The impact of storms on shear stress and transport strongly depends on water depths and the greatest impact occurs over the bathymetric highs on southeastern Grand Bank where the maximum shear velocity reaches 15 cm s−1 and the maximum transport rates are >5 kg m−1 s−1. The direction of sediment transport rotates clockwise progressively through nearly 360° during the passage of a storm. Although peak transport typically occurs on central and southeastern Grand Bank with a southeastward direction, the magnitude, direction, and timing of peak transport show strong spatial and temporal variability. The variability of the peak transport largely depends on the timing and relative intensity of the waves and the total bottom currents which in turn depends on the addition of the storm-induced and tidal currents. The calculation of the maximum transport potential suggests that sediments as coarse as small pebbles are mobile in water depths <80 m under 1:1 year storms and that medium sand is transported in water depths as deep as 200 m during major storms. Results of the sediment transport models corroborate the observed sediment erosion and accretion patterns.
The uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere has resulted in a decrease in seawater aragonite saturation state (Ωarag), which affects the health of carbonate-bearing organisms and the marine ecosystem. A substantial short-term variability of surface water Ωarag, with an increase of up to 0.32, was observed in the central Mid-Atlantic Bight off the Delaware and the Chesapeake Bays over a short period of 10 days in summer 2015. High-frequency underway measurements for temperature, salinity, percentage saturation of dissolved oxygen, oxygen to argon ratio, pH, fCO2, and measurements based on discrete samples for pH, dissolved inorganic carbon, and total alkalinity are used to investigate how physical and biogeochemical processes contribute to the changes of Ωarag. Quantitative analyses show that physical advection and mixing processes are the dominant forces for higher Ωarag in slope waters while biological carbon removal and CO2 degassing contribute to increased Ωarag in shelf waters.
This study explores the behavior of the exchange coefficients for wind stress (CD), sensible heat flux (CH), and water vapor flux (CE) as functions of surface wind speed (U10) and atmospheric stability using direct turbulent flux measurements obtained from a platform equipped with fast-response turbulence sensors in a low-to-moderate wind region. Turbulent fluxes are calculated using the eddy-correlation method with extensive observations. The total numbers of quality-controlled 30 min flux runs are 12,240, 5813, and 5637 for estimation of CD, CH, and CE, respectively. When adjusted to neutral stability using the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), we found that CDN, CHN, and CEN decrease with neutral-adjusted wind speed when wind speed is less than 5 m/s. CDN is constant over the range 5 m/s < U10N < 12 m/s, then increases with U10N when U10N > 12 m/s. In contrast, CHN and CEN exhibit no clear dependence on wind speed and are generally constant, with mean values of 0.96 × 10−3 and 1.2 × 10−3, respectively. This behavior of neutral exchange coefficients is consistent with the findings of previous studies. We also found that CDN under offshore winds is generally greater than that under onshore wind conditions, which is ascribed to the younger wind waves present due to the shorter fetch in the former case. However, this behavior is not exhibited by CHN or CEN. The original CD, CH, and CE values without MOST adjustment are also investigated to develop a new parameterization based on wind speed and stability. Three stability parameters are tested, including the bulk Richardson number, stability as defined in COARE 3.0, and a simplified Richardson number using the Charnock parameter. This new parameterization is free of MOST and the associated self-correlation. Compared with previous studies and COARE 3.0 results, the new parameterization using the simplified Richardson number performs well, with an increased correlation coefficient and reduction of root-mean-square error and bias.
This study investigates short-crested waves in the surf zone by using the mesh-free Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model, GPUSPH. The short-crested waves are created by generating intersecting wave trains in a numerical wave basin with a beach. We first validate the numerical model for short-crested waves by comparison with large-scale laboratory measurements. Then short-crested wave breaking over a planar beach is studied comprehensively. We observe rip currents as discussed in Dalrymple (1975) and undertow created by synchronous intersecting waves. The wave breaking of the short-crested wavefield created by the nonlinear superposition of intersecting waves and wave-current interaction result in the formation of isolated breakers at the ends of breaking wave crests. Wave amplitude diffraction at these isolated breakers gives rise to an increase in the alongshore wave number in the inner surf zone. Moreover, 3-D vortices and multiple circulation cells with a rotation frequency much lower than the incident wave frequency are observed across the outer surf zone to the beach. Finally, we investigate vertical vorticity generation under short-crested wave breaking and find that breaking of short-crested waves generates vorticity as pointed out by Peregrine (1998). Vorticity generation is not only observed under short-crested waves with a limited number of wave components but also under directional wave spectra.
A large rockslide was released from the inner Askja caldera into Lake Askja, Iceland, on 21 July 2014. Upon entering the lake, it caused a large tsunami that traveled about ∼3 km across the lake and inundated the shore with vertical runup measuring up to 60–80 m. Following the event, comprehensive field data were collected, including GPS measurements of the inundation and multibeam echo soundings of the lake bathymetry. Using this exhaustive data set, numerical modeling of the tsunami has been conducted using both a nonlinear shallow water model and a Boussinesq-type model that includes frequency dispersion. To constrain unknown landslide parameters, a global optimization algorithm, Differential Evolution, was employed, resulting in a parameter set that minimized the deviation from measured inundation. The tsunami model of Lake Askja is the first example where we have been able to utilize field data to show that frequency dispersion is needed to explain the tsunami wave radiation pattern and that shallow water theory falls short. We were able to fit the trend in tsunami runup observations around the entire lake using the Boussinesq model. In contrast, the shallow water model gave a different runup pattern and produced pronounced offsets in certain areas. The well-documented Lake Askja tsunami thus provided a unique opportunity to explore and capture the essential physics of landslide tsunami generation and propagation through numerical modeling. Moreover, the study of the event is important because this dispersive nature is likely to occur for other subaerial impact tsunamis.
This study provides an analysis of the Mediterranean Sea surface energy budget using nine surface heat flux climatologies. The ensemble mean estimation shows that the net downward shortwave radiation (192 ± 19 W m−2) is balanced by latent heat flux (−98 ± 10 W m−2), followed by net longwave radiation (−78 ± 13 W m−2) and sensible heat flux (−13 ± 4 W m−2). The resulting net heat budget (Qnet) is 2 ± 12 W m−2 into the ocean, which appears to be warm biased. The annual-mean Qnet should be −5.6 ± 1.6 W m−2 when estimated from the observed net transport through the Strait of Gibraltar. To diagnose the uncertainty in nine Qnet climatologies, we constructed Qnet from the heat budget equation by using historic hydrological observations to determine the heat content changes and advective heat flux. We also used the Qnet from a data-assimilated global ocean state estimation as an additional reference. By comparing with the two reference Qnet estimates, we found that seven products (NCEP 1, NCEP 2, CFSR, ERA-Interim, MERRA, NOCSv2.0, and OAFlux+ISCCP) overestimate Qnet, with magnitude ranging from 6 to 27 W m−2, while two products underestimate Qnet by −6 W m−2 (JRA55) and −14 W m−2 (CORE.2). Together with the previous warm pool work of Song and Yu (2013), we show that CFSR, MERRA, NOCSv2.0, and OAFlux+ISCCP are warm-biased not only in the western Pacific warm pool but also in the Mediterranean Sea, while CORE.2 is cold-biased in both regions. The NCEP 1, 2, and ERA-Interim are cold-biased over the warm pool but warm-biased in the Mediterranean Sea.
A wave-driven surface-buoyant jet exiting a coral reef was studied in order to quantify the amount of water reentrained over the reef crest. Both moored observations and Lagrangian drifters were used to study the fate of the buoyant jet. To investigate in detail the effects of buoyancy and alongshore flow variations, we developed an idealized numerical model of the system. Consistent with previous work, the ratio of alongshore velocity to jet velocity and the jet internal Froude number were found to be important determinants of the fate of the jet. In the absence of buoyancy, the entrainment of fluid at the reef crest creates a significant amount of retention, keeping 60% of water in the reef system. However, when the jet is lighter than the ambient ocean water, the net effect of buoyancy is to enhance the separation of the jet from shore, leading to a greater export of reef water. Matching observations, our modeling predicts that buoyancy limits retention to 30% of the jet flow for conditions existing on the Moorea reef. Overall, the combination of observations and modeling we present here shows that reef-ocean temperature gradients can play an important role in reef-ocean exchanges.
The effects of turbulence generated by nonbreaking waves have been investigated by testing and evaluating a new nonbreaking wave parameterization in a coupled hurricane-ocean-wave model. The MPI version of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with hurricane forcing is coupled with the WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) surface wave model. Hurricane Ivan is chosen as the test case due to its extreme intensity and availability of field data during its passage. The model results are validated against field observations of wave heights and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the National Data Buoy Centre (NDBC) during Hurricane Ivan and against limited in situ current and bottom temperature data. A series of numerical experiments is set up to examine the influence of the nonbreaking wave parameterization on the mixing of upper ocean. The SST response from the modeling experiments indicates that the nonbreaking wave-induced mixing leads to significant cooling of the SST and deepening of the mixed layer. It was found that the nondimensional constant b1 in the nonbreaking wave parameterization has different impacts on the weak and the strong sides of the storm track. A constant value of b1 leads to improved predictions on the strong side of the storm while a steepness-dependent b1 provides a better agreement with in situ observations on the weak side. A separate simulation of the intense tropical cyclone Olwyn in north-west Australia revealed the same trend for b1 on the strong side of the tropical cyclone.
The East Australian Current (EAC) dominates the ocean circulation along south-eastern Australia, however, little is known about the submesoscale frontal instabilities associated with this western boundary current. One year of surface current measurements from HF radars, in conjunction with mooring and satellite observations, highlight the occurrence and propagation of meanders and frontal eddies along the inshore edge of the EAC. Eddies were systematically identified using the geometry of the high spatial resolution (∼1.5 km) surface currents, and tracked every hour. Cyclonic eddies were observed irregularly, on average every 7 days, with inshore radius ∼10 km. Among various forms of structures, frontal eddies associated with EAC meanders were characterized by poleward advection speeds of ∼0.3–0.4 m/s, migrating as far as 500 km south, based on satellite imagery. Flow field kinematics show that cyclonic eddies have high Rossby numbers (0.6–1.9) and enhance particle dispersion. Patches of intensified surface divergence at the leading edge of the structures are expected to generate vertical uplift. This is confirmed by subsurface measurements showing temperature uplift of up to 55 m over 24 h and rough estimates of vertical velocities of 10s of meters per day. While frontal eddies propagate through the radar domain independently of local wind stress, upfront wind can influence their stalling and growth, and can also generate large cold core eddies through intense shear. Such coherent structures are a major mechanism for the transport and entrainment of nutrient rich coastal or deep waters, influencing physical and biological dynamics, and connectivity over large distances.
The tide-induced residual current is a crucial determinant of the distribution of sediment in a tidally dominated bay. There have been only a few studies of residual currents in bays with laterally asymmetric depth, although the residual circulation in bays with symmetric lateral depth variation has been studied extensively. Gomso Bay is a typical bay with laterally asymmetric depth. The bay is characterized by a deep channel to the north and a wide shoal to the south. This study reports the tide-induced residual current in Gomso Bay and explains its dynamics using numerical and analytical models. The results from the models are consistent with observations. Residual flows show a clockwise gyre inside the bay and counterclockwise circulation near the mouth. Three physical causes induce residual circulation: (1) bottom friction coupled with a tidal height, (2) advection causing inward residual transport, and (3) a pressure gradient due to a surface slope induced by subtidal flow. The maximum inward residual current is shifted toward the wider shoal. This is caused by across-channel advection due to the laterally asymmetric depth.
Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier (79NG) is the largest of three marine-terminating outlet glaciers draining the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. To understand how Atlantic waters supply waters in the cavity beneath the floating 79NG, we analyze historic and recent bathymetric, hydrographic, and velocity observations obtained on the Northeast Greenland continental shelf. The bathymetry is characterized by a trough system, consisting of the Westwind Trough and the Norske Trough in the northern and southern part of the continental shelf, respectively. Atlantic waters recirculating in Fram Strait cross the shelf break and enter the trough system at its southeastern inlet toward the inner shelf. Warm Atlantic Intermediate Water (AIW) present below 200 m in the Norske Trough shows large contributions of the recirculating Atlantic water. We found that the bathymetry is sufficiently deep to provide a direct subsurface pathway for warm AIW between the shelf break and the 79NG cavity via the Norske Trough. Likewise, based on the hydrographic data, we show that the Norske Trough supplies AIW warmer than 1°C to the 79NG, which is not present in the Westwind Trough. Our moored and lowered velocity measurements indicate that a boundary current carries warm AIW along the northeastern slope of Norske Trough toward the 79NG. We suggest that anomalies in Atlantic water temperatures in Fram Strait could reach 79NG within less than 1.5 years, thereby modifying the glacier's basal melt rates.
The Solomon Sea is a marginal sea in the southwest Pacific that connects subtropical and equatorial circulation, constricting transport of South Pacific Subtropical Mode Water and Antarctic Intermediate Water through its deep, narrow channels. Marginal sea topography inhibits internal waves from propagating out and into the open ocean, making these regions hot spots for energy dissipation and mixing. Data from two hydrographic cruises and from Argo profiles are employed to indirectly infer mixing from observations for the first time in the Solomon Sea. Thorpe and finescale methods indirectly estimate the rate of dissipation of kinetic energy (ϵ) and indicate that it is maximum in the surface and thermocline layers and decreases by 2–3 orders of magnitude by 2000 m depth. Estimates of diapycnal diffusivity from the observations and a simple diffusive model agree in magnitude but have different depth structures, likely reflecting the combined influence of both diapycnal mixing and isopycnal stirring. Spatial variability of ϵ is large, spanning at least 2 orders of magnitude within isopycnal layers. Seasonal variability of ϵ reflects regional monsoonal changes in large-scale oceanic and atmospheric conditions with ϵ increased in July and decreased in March. Finally, tide power input and topographic roughness are well correlated with mean spatial patterns of mixing within intermediate and deep isopycnals but are not clearly correlated with thermocline mixing patterns.
We integrate data-driven ocean modeling with the stochastic Dynamically Orthogonal (DO) level-set optimization methodology to compute and study energy-optimal paths, speeds, and headings for ocean vehicles in the Middle-Atlantic Bight (MAB) region. We hindcast the energy-optimal paths from among exact time-optimal paths for the period 28 August 2006 to 9 September 2006. To do so, we first obtain a data-assimilative multiscale reanalysis, combining ocean observations with implicit two-way nested multiresolution primitive-equation simulations of the tidal-to-mesoscale dynamics in the region. Second, we solve the reduced-order stochastic DO level-set partial differential equations (PDEs) to compute the joint probability of minimum arrival time, vehicle-speed time series, and total energy utilized. Third, for each arrival time, we select the vehicle-speed time series that minimize the total energy utilization from the marginal probability of vehicle-speed and total energy. The corresponding energy-optimal path and headings are obtained through the exact particle-backtracking equation. Theoretically, the present methodology is PDE-based and provides fundamental energy-optimal predictions without heuristics. Computationally, it is 3–4 orders of magnitude faster than direct Monte Carlo methods. For the missions considered, we analyze the effects of the regional tidal currents, strong wind events, coastal jets, shelfbreak front, and other local circulations on the energy-optimal paths. Results showcase the opportunities for vehicles that intelligently utilize the ocean environment to minimize energy usage, rigorously integrating ocean forecasting with optimal control of autonomous vehicles.
Intraseasonal-to-semiannual variability of sea-surface height (SSH) in the eastern, equatorial Indian Ocean (EEIO) and southern Bay of Bengal (BoB) is investigated using altimetric data, and solutions to 1½ layer (first baroclinic mode) and linear, continuously stratified (LCS; multibaroclinic-mode) models. The amplitude and dominant periods of SSH variability differ regionally. Large-amplitude variability is found along the west coast of Sumatra, in a zonal band across the BoB centered along 5°N, east of Sri Lanka, and in the northwestern BoB, respectively. Along the Sumatran west coast, SSH variability peaks at 30–60, 90, and 180 days. Along 5°N and east of Sri Lanka, the 30–60 day variability is dominant. Sensitivity experiments using a nonlinear version of the 1½ layer model forced by realistic winds reproduce the observed patterns of intraseasonal variability in the southern BoB. At 30–60 days, the solutions show that eddies (nonlinear Rossby waves) propagating from the east, rather than local wind forcing, account for most of the variance east of Sri Lanka; furthermore, they demonstrate that the variance is significantly enhanced by the nonlinear transfer of 90–120 day energy into the intraseasonal band of 30–60 days. The LCS solutions show that the first two baroclinic modes explain most of the SSH variance at 90–180 days. The second baroclinic mode dominates the SSH variance at 180 days, a consequence of basin resonance and strong wind forcing.
Coastal inundation is affected not only by rising mean sea level but also by changing tides. A numerical model is developed to investigate how sea level rise and coastline changes may impact tides in two coastal-plain estuaries, Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. Despite their different tidal characteristics, the two estuaries display similar responses to the sea level rise and shoreline management scenarios. When hypothetic sea walls are erected at the present coastline to prevent low-lying land from flooding, tidal range increases, with greater amplification in the upper part of the two estuaries. When low-lying land is allowed to become permanently inundated by higher sea level, however, tidal range in both estuaries decreases. Analyses of the tidal energy budget show that the increased dissipation over the shallow water and newly inundated areas compensates for the reduced dissipation in deep water, leading to smaller tidal range. The changes in the tidal range are not proportional to the changes in the mean sea level, indicating a nonlinear tidal response to sea level rise. The ratio of tidal range change to sea level rise varies between −0.05 and 0.1 in Chesapeake Bay and between −0.2 and 0.25 in Delaware Bay. The model results suggest a potential adaptation strategy that uses inundation over low-lying areas to reduce tidal range at up-estuary locations.
A strongly nonlinear evolution equation based on an approximate Hamiltonian is suggested and applied to the description of nonstationary processes of formation and evolution of strong internal solitons and their groups (solibores). Comparison with experimental data shows that such a simplified approach can be effectively applied to the description and prediction of strong internal waves' evolution in the upper ocean.
Coastal circulation off Kayak Island in the northern Gulf of Alaska was explored in wintertime (October 2012 to March 2013) by deploying nine moorings within the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC). Hydrographic, bottom-pressure, and velocity observations depicted well the winter variability of the ACC. Atmospheric observations showed a net loss of heat, 30 W m−2 or more, from the ocean to the atmosphere and indicated that storms with downwelling-favorable winds over 10 m s−1 frequently passed over the area. Due to vigorous mixing during storms, the waters were well-mixed or weakly stratified whereas bottom-pressure anomalies were mainly related to surface-elevation fluctuations and indicated that there was also a cross-shelf surface-elevation gradient. Current observations showed along-shelf nearly barotropic subtidal flow of 40 cm s−1 or more throughout the water column. They also indicated that along-shelf flow was primarily driven by the cross-shelf pressure gradient resulting from the cross-shelf surface-elevation gradient and not by wind stress. Analyses suggested that flow dynamics within the ACC in winter were well-described by vertically averaged momentum equations and showed a dominance of the cross-shelf pressure gradient that was mainly balanced by the Coriolis term. Observations also showed that when winds relaxed, cold low-salinity waters moved offshore and stratification was reestablished. Consequently, near-shore waters were less dense, i.e., cooler and fresher than offshore waters resulting in the cross-shelf density gradient that may have contributed to the along-shelf flow by generating near-surface currents of ∼20 cm s−1.
A 3-D variational ocean data assimilation adjoint approach is used to examine the impact of ocean observations on coupled tropical cyclone (TC) model forecast error for three recent hurricanes: Isaac (2012), Hilda (2015), and Matthew (2016). In addition, this methodology is applied to develop an innovative ocean observation targeting tool validated using TC model simulations that assimilate ocean temperature observed by Airborne eXpendable Bathy Thermographs and Air-Launched Autonomous Micro-Observer floats. Comparison between the simulated targeted and real observation data assimilation impacts reveals a positive maximum mean linear correlation of 0.53 at 400–500 m, which implies some skill in the targeting application. Targeted ocean observation regions from these three hurricanes, however, show that the largest positive impacts in reducing the TC model forecast errors are sensitive to the initial prestorm ocean conditions such as the location and magnitude of preexisting ocean eddies, storm-induced ocean cold wake, and model track errors.
In this paper, an improved formulation of the vegetation drag force, applicable for the fully nonlinear Boussinesq equations and based on the use of the depth-varying, higher-order expansion of the horizontal velocity, in the quadratic vegetation drag law has been presented. The model uses the same numerical schemes as FUNWAVE TVD but is based on the CACTUS framework. The model is validated for wave height and setup, against laboratory experiments with and without vegetation cover. The wave attenuation results using the improved formulation were compared with those using the first-order reference velocity as well as with analytical solutions using linear wave theory. The analytical solution using the depth-varying velocity, predicted by the linear wave theory, was shown to match the model results with the fully expanded velocity approach very well for all wave cases, except under near-emergent and emergent conditions (when the ratio of stem height to water depth is greater than 0.75) and when the Ursell (Ur) number is less than 5. Simulations during peak storm waves, during Hurricane Isaac, showed that vegetation is very effective in reducing setup on platforms and in reducing the wave energy within the first few hundred meters.
This study investigates the seasonal cycle of meridional currents in the upper layers of central equatorial Indian Ocean using acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and other data over the period 2004–2013. The ADCP data set collected along 80.5°E is the most comprehensive collection of direct velocity measurements in the central Indian Ocean to date, providing new insights into the meridional circulation in this region. We find that mean volume transport is southward across the equator in the central Indian Ocean in approximate Sverdrup balance with the wind stress curl. In addition, mean westerly wind stress near the equator drives convergent Ekman flow in the surface layer and subsurface divergent geostrophic flow in the thermocline at 50–150 m depths. In response to a mean northward component of the surface wind stress, the maximum surface layer convergence is shifted off the equator to between 0.5° and 1°N. Evidence is also presented for the existence of a shallow equatorial roll consisting of a northward wind-driven surface drift overlaying the southward directed subsurface Sverdrup transport. Seasonal variations are characterized by cross-equatorial transports flowing from the summer to the winter hemisphere in quasi-steady Sverdrup balance with the wind stress curl. In addition, semiannually varying westerly monsoon transition winds lead to semiannual enhancements of surface layer Ekman convergence and geostrophic divergence in the thermocline. These results quantify expectations from ocean circulation theories for equatorial Indian Ocean meridional circulation patterns with a high degree of confidence given the length of the data records.
Optically active constituents (OACs) in addition to water molecules attenuate light via processes of absorption and scattering and thereby determine underwater light availability. An analysis of their optical properties helps in determining the contribution of each of these to light attenuation. With an aim to study the bio-optical variability, absorption budget and 1% spectral light availability, hydrographical (temperature and salinity), and hyperspectral optical (downwelling irradiance and upwelling radiance) profiles were measured along fjord transects in Sognefjord and Trondheimsfjord, Norway. Optical water quality observations were also performed using Secchi disc and Forel-Ule scale. In concurrence, water samples were collected and analyzed via visible spectrophotometry, fluorometry, and gravimetry to quantify and derive inherent optical properties of the water constituents. An absorption model (R2 = 0.91, n = 36, p < 0.05) as a function of OACs is developed for Sognefjord using multiple regression analysis. Influenced by glacial meltwater, Sognefjord had higher concentration of inorganic suspended matter, while Trondheimsfjord had higher concentrations of CDOM. Increase in turbidity caused increased attenuation of light upstream, as a result of which the euphotic depth decreased from outer to inner fjord sections. Triangular representation of absorption budget revealed dominant absorption by CDOM at 443–555 nm, while that by phytoplankton at 665 nm. Sognefjord however exhibited much greater optical complexity. A significantly strong correlation between salinity and acdom440 is used to develop an algorithm to estimate acdom440 using salinity in Trondheimsfjord.
A significant temperature inversion with temperature differences larger than 3°C was observed in the southeastern Yellow Sea (YS) during February 2016. By analyzing in situ hydrographic profiles and results from a regional ocean model for the YS, this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution of the temperature inversion and its connection with wind-induced currents in winter. Observations reveal that in winter, when the northwesterly wind prevails over the YS, the temperature inversion occurs largely at the frontal zone southwest of Korea where warm/saline water of a Kuroshio origin meets cold/fresh coastal water. Our model successfully captures the temperature inversion observed in the winter of 2016 and suggests a close relation between northwesterly wind bursts and the occurrence of the large inversion. In this respect, the strong northwesterly wind drove cold coastal water southward in the upper layer via Ekman transport, which pushed the water mass southward and increased the sea level slope in the frontal zone in southeastern YS. The intensified sea level slope propagated northward away from the frontal zone as a shelf wave, causing a northward upwind flow response along the YS trough in the lower layer, thereby resulting in the large temperature inversion. Diagnostic analysis of the momentum balance shows that the westward pressure gradient, which developed with shelf wave propagation along the YS trough, was balanced with the Coriolis force in accordance with the northward upwind current in and around the inversion area.
To investigate the dynamics of flows near nonuniform bathymetry, single channels (on average 30 m wide and 1.5 m deep) were dredged across the surf zone at five different times, and the subsequent evolution of currents and morphology was observed for a range of wave and tidal conditions. In addition, circulation was simulated with the numerical modeling system COAWST, initialized with the observed incident waves and channel bathymetry, and with an extended set of wave conditions and channel geometries. The simulated flows are consistent with alongshore flows and rip-current circulation patterns observed in the surf zone. Near the offshore-directed flows that develop in the channel, the dominant terms in modeled momentum balances are wave-breaking accelerations, pressure gradients, advection, and the vortex force. The balances vary spatially, and are sensitive to wave conditions and the channel geometry. The observed and modeled maximum offshore-directed flow speeds are correlated with a parameter based on the alongshore gradient in breaking-wave-driven-setup across the nonuniform bathymetry (a function of wave height and angle, water depths in the channel and on the sandbar, and a breaking threshold) and the breaking-wave-driven alongshore flow speed. The offshore-directed flow speed increases with dissipation on the bar and reaches a maximum (when the surf zone is saturated) set by the vertical scale of the bathymetric variability.
A suite of eddy-resolving ocean transient tracer model simulations are first compared to observations. Observational and model pCFC-11 ages agree quite well, with the eddy-resolving model adding detail. The CFC ages show that the thermocline is a barrier to interior ocean exchange with the atmosphere on time scales of 45 years, the measureable CFC transient, although there are exceptions. Next, model simulations are used to quantify effects on tracer ages of the spatial dependence of internal ocean tracer variability due to stirring from eddies and biases from nonstationarity of the atmospheric transient when there is mixing. These add to tracer age uncertainties and biases, which are large in frontal boundary regions, and small in subtropical gyre interiors. These uncertainties and biases are used to reinterpret observed temporal trends in tracer-derived ventilation time scales taken from observations more than a decade apart, and to assess whether interpretations of changes in tracer ages being due to changes in ocean ventilation hold water. For the southern hemisphere subtropical gyres, we infer that the rate of ocean ventilation 26–27.2 σθ increased between the mid-1990s and the decade of the 2000s. However, between the mid-1990s and the decade of the 2010s, there is no significant trend—perhaps except for South Atlantic. Observed age/AOU/ventilation changes are linked to a combination of natural cycles and climate change, and there is regional variability. Thus, for the future it is not clear how strong or steady in space and time ocean ventilation changes will be.
Subsurface eddies are ubiquitous features in eastern boundary current systems. These phenomena tend to modulate the across-shore distribution of heat and biogeochemical tracers. A California Undercurrent eddy was detected by shipboard observations in October 2009 off the northern Baja California continental slope. The spatiotemporal variation in the California Undercurrent eddy is investigated by using a mesoscale-resolving hindcast ocean simulation. A poleward coastal current that is driven by an upwelling-wind relaxation event and the coastline geometry instigated the separation of the California Undercurrent from the slope, forming a meander-like structure, which evolved as a mesoscale eddy-like structure. The latter structure evolved as a subsurface eddy with a warm anomaly core, a distinctive feature of eddies that form from the California Undercurrent. During the initial stage, the subsurface eddy presented a cone-shape form, with the maximum amplitude of the relative vorticity in the upper section. The inviscid effect of the irregular bottom topography altered both the initial direction of propagation and the initial eddy shape: the propagation direction of the eddy changed from north-south to southwest, and the shape changed from a cone shape to a subsurface lens shape. The strong eddy-topography interactions triggered a sign change in the heat flux direction from the environment toward the eddy and vice versa through the horizontally divergent component of the velocity field, which accelerated the eddy's decay. This study shows the relevance of the synoptic wind stress events and the irregularity of the bottom topography on the mesoscale eddy activity in the southern portion of the California Current.
The hydrodynamic drag generated by seagrass meadows can dissipate wave-energy, causing wave decay. It is well known that this drag depends on the relative motion between the water and the seagrass blades, yet the impact of blade motion on drag and wave-energy dissipation remains to be fully characterized. In this experimental study, we examined the impact of blade motion on wave decay by concurrently recording blade posture during a wave cycle and measuring wave decay over a model seagrass meadow. We also identified a scaling law that predicts wave decay over the model meadow for a range of seagrass blade density, wave period, wave height, and water depth scaled from typical field conditions. Blade flexibility led to significantly lower drag and wave decay relative to theoretical predictions for rigid, upright blades. To quantify the impact of blade motion on wave decay, we employed an effective blade length, le, defined as the rigid blade length that leads to equivalent wave-energy dissipation. We estimated le directly from images of blade motion. Consistent with previous studies, these estimates showed that the effective blade length depends on the dimensionless Cauchy number, which describes the relative magnitude of the wave hydrodynamic drag and the restoring force due to blade rigidity. As the hydrodynamic forcing increases, the blades exhibit greater motion. Greater blade motion leads to smaller relative velocities, reducing drag, and wave-energy dissipation (i.e., smaller le).
We present 34 profiles of radon-deficit from the ice-ocean boundary layer of the Beaufort Sea. Including these 34, there are presently 58 published radon-deficit estimates of air-sea gas transfer velocity (k) in the Arctic Ocean; 52 of these estimates were derived from water covered by 10% sea ice or more. The average value of k collected since 2011 is 4.0 ± 1.2 m d−1. This exceeds the quadratic wind speed prediction of weighted kws = 2.85 m d−1 with mean-weighted wind speed of 6.4 m s−1. We show how ice cover changes the mixed-layer radon budget, and yields an "effective gas transfer velocity." We use these 58 estimates to statistically evaluate the suitability of a wind speed parameterization for k, when the ocean surface is ice covered. Whereas the six profiles taken from the open ocean indicate a statistically good fit to wind speed parameterizations, the same parameterizations could not reproduce k from the sea ice zone. We conclude that techniques for estimating k in the open ocean cannot be similarly applied to determine k in the presence of sea ice. The magnitude of k through gaps in the ice may reach high values as ice cover increases, possibly as a result of focused turbulence dissipation at openings in the free surface. These 58 profiles are presently the most complete set of estimates of k across seasons and variable ice cover; as dissolved tracer budgets they reflect air-sea gas exchange with no impact from air-ice gas exchange.
The northern Indian Ocean is globally significant for its seasonally reversing winds, upwelled nutrients, high biological production, and expanding oxygen minimum zones. The region acts as sink and source for atmospheric CO2. However, the efficiency of the biological carbon pump to sequester atmospheric CO2 and export particulate organic carbon from the surface is not well known. To quantify the upper ocean carbon export flux and to estimate the efficiency of biological carbon pump in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, seawater profiles of total 234Th were measured from surface to 300 m depth at 13 stations from 19.9°N to 25.3°S in a transect along 87°E, during spring intermonsoon period (March–April 2014). Results showed enhanced in situ primary production in the equatorial Indian Ocean and the central Bay of Bengal and varied from 13.2 to 173.8 mmol C m−2 d−1. POC export flux in this region varied from 0 to 7.7 mmol C m−2 d−1. Though high carbon export flux was found in the equatorial region, remineralization of organic carbon in the surface and subsurface waters considerably reduced organic carbon export in the Bay of Bengal. Annually recurring anticyclonic eddies enhanced organic carbon utilization and heterotrophy. Oxygen minimum zone developed due to stratification and poor ventilation was intensified by subsurface remineralization. 234Th-based carbon export fluxes were not comparable with empirical statistical model estimates based on primary production and temperature. Region-specific refinement of model parameters is required to accurately predict POC export fluxes.
Sea surface salinity (SSS) from the Aquarius and SMOS satellite missions displays a steady increase of ∼1 psu over the entire northwestern Atlantic shelf south of Nova Scotia during 2011–2015. Put in the context of longer ocean profile data, the results suggest that mixed layer salinity and temperature north of the Gulf Stream experience positively correlated shelf-wide interannual oscillations (1 psu/2°C). Salty and warm events occur coincident with anomalous easterly-southeasterly winds and Ekman transport counteracting the mean southwestward shelf currents. They are coincident with weakening of both branches of the Scotian Shelf Current (SSC), but only moderately correlate with shifts of the Gulf Stream North Wall. This suggests that salt advection by anomalous SSC acting on the mean salinity gradient is the primary driver regulating the transport of fresh/cold water from high latitudes. The advection mechanism imposes a connectedness of the larger-scale interannual variability in this region and its tie to atmospheric oscillations. In the second part, an analysis of 15 year-long numerical simulations is presented which show eight interannual salinity oscillations (positive and negative). Six of these are driven by horizontal advection by slow varying currents (>2 months), while two events are driven by horizontal eddy advection (<2 months). In line with observations, salt/warm model events correspond to anomalously weak SSC, correlate with southeasterly wind anomaly, and confirm that interannual horizontal salt advection drives interannual salinity. Indeed, vertical exchanges provide negative feedback, while interannual horizontal diffusion and the net surface salt flux anomalies are small.
Wave-driven flows over canopies of aquatic vegetation (such as seagrass) are characterized by the generation of a strong, shoreward mean current near the top of the canopy. This shoreward drift, which is observed to be up to 75% of the RMS above-canopy orbital velocity, can have a significant impact on residence times within coastal canopies. There have been limited observations of this current and an accurate formulation of its magnitude is still lacking. Accordingly, this study aims to develop a practical relationship to describe the strength of this current as a function of both wave and canopy characteristics. A simple model for the Lagrangian drift velocity indicates that the magnitude of the wave-driven current increases with the above-canopy oscillatory velocity, the vertical orbital excursion at the top of the canopy, and the canopy density. An extensive laboratory study, using both rigid and (dynamically scaled) flexible model vegetation, was carried out to evaluate the proposed model. Experimental results reveal a strong agreement between predicted and measured current velocities over a wide and realistic range of canopy and wave conditions. The validity of this model is also confirmed through available field measurements. Characterization of this wave-induced mean current will allow an enhanced capacity for predicting residence time, and thus key ecological processes, in coastal canopies.
For improving analyses of tropical cyclone (TC) and sea surface temperature (SST) and thereby TC simulations, a regional mesoscale strongly coupled atmosphere-ocean data assimilation system was developed with the local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) implemented with the Japan Meteorological Agency's nonhydrostatic model (NHM) coupled with a multilayer ocean model and the third-generation ocean wave model. The NHM-LETKF coupled data assimilation system was applied to Typhoon Sinlaku (2008) along with the original NHM-LETKF system to investigate the sensitivity of Sinlaku to SST assimilation with the Level 2 Pre-processed (L2P) standard product of satellite SST. SST calculated in the coupled-assimilation experiment with the coupled data assimilation system and the satellite SST (CPL) showed a better correlation with Optimally Interpolated SST than SST used in the control experiment with the original NHM-LETKF (CNTL) and SST calculated in the succession experiment with the coupled system without satellite SST (SUCC). The time series in the CPL experiment well captured the variation in the SST observed at the Kuroshio Extension Observation buoy site. In addition, TC-induced sea surface cooling was analyzed more realistically in the CPL experiment than that in the CNTL and SUCC experiments. However, the central pressure analyzed in each three experiments was overestimated compared with the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center Tokyo best-track central pressure, mainly due to the coarse horizontal resolution of 15 km. The 96 h TC simulations indicated that the CPL experiment provided more favorable initial and boundary conditions than the CNTL experiment to simulate TC tracks more accurately.
In this study, statistical characteristics and spatiotemporal variability of the cold-core subthermocline eddies (STEs) discovered by Zhang et al. (2015) in the northwestern Pacific are investigated with 14 years of Argo temperature/salinity (T/S) data between 2002 and 2015. By applying an objective identification procedure to Argo T/S profiles, a total of 337 lens-like STEs that trap cold and fresh homogeneous water are obtained. The STEs' cores are primarily located between 26.5 and 26.9 (300–800 m) and their shapes share a uniform Gaussian structure in vertical. Vertical and horizontal scale of the STEs is generally between 100 and 200 m and 5 and 15 km, respectively, suggesting that they are in the category of submesoscale processes. According to their different densities and seasonalities, the STEs are classified into upper and lower types with density interface of 26.7 . The number of upper-type STEs is much larger in spring and summer than in autumn and winter while that of lower-type ones show relatively uniform seasonal distributions. Spatially, the STEs are primarily distributed within the region between the Kuroshio Extension (KE) and subarctic front (SAF) in meridional and 140°E–155°E in zonal direction. Based on STEs' spatial distributions and vertical locations, we propose to name these STEs as KE intermediate-layer eddies (Kiddies). Water property analysis suggests that the Kiddies most likely originated from the SAF region. For the upper-type Kiddies, they are probably generated through subduction associated with mixed-layer frontogenesis, which at least contribute to 0.25 Sv annual subduction rate for the layers 26.2–26.7 .
Identification of oceanic regions characterized by particular optical properties is extremely important for ocean color applications. The departure from globally established bio-optical models (i.e., anomaly) introduces uncertainties in the retrieval of biogeochemical quantities from satellite observations. Thanks to an array of 105 Biogeochemical Argo floats acquiring almost daily downward irradiance measurements at selected wavelengths in the UV and blue region of the spectrum, we reexamined the natural variability of the spectral diffuse attenuation coefficients, Kd(λ), among the world's oceans and compared them to previously established bio-optical models. The analysis of 2847 measurements of Kd(λ) at 380 and 490 nm, within the first optical depth, provided a classification of the examined regions into three groups. The first one included the Black Sea, a water body characterized by a very high content of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The second group was essentially composed by the subtropical gyres (Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), with optical properties consistent with previous models (i.e., no anomalies). High latitude (North Atlantic and Southern oceans) and temperate (Mediterranean Sea) seas formed the third group, in which optical properties departed from existing bio-optical models. Annual climatologies of the Kd(380)/Kd(490) ratio evidenced a persistent anomaly in the Mediterranean Sea, that we attributed to a higher-than-average CDOM contribution to total light absorption. In the North Atlantic subpolar gyre, anomalies were observed only in wintertime and were also attributed to high CDOM concentrations. In the Southern Ocean, the anomaly was likely related to high phytoplankton pigment packaging rather than to CDOM.
Ocean surface films can damp short capillary-gravity waves, reduce the surface mean square slope, and induce "sigma0 blooms" in satellite altimeter data. No study has ascertained the effect of such film on altimeter measurements due to lack of film data. The availability of Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) oil cover, daily oil spill extent, and thickness data acquired during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill accident provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of surface film on altimeter data. In this study, the Jason-1/2 passes nearest to the DWH platform are analyzed to understand the waveform distortion caused by the spill as well as the variation of σ0 as a function of oil thickness, wind speed, and radar band. Jason-1/2 Ku-band σ0 increased by 10 dB at low wind speed (<3 m s−1) in the oil-covered area. The mean σ0 in Ku and C bands increased by 1.0–3.5 dB for thick oil and 0.9–2.9 dB for thin oil while the waveforms are strongly distorted. As the wind increases up to 6 m s−1, the mean σ0 bloom and waveform distortion in both Ku and C bands weakened for both thick and thin oil. When wind exceeds 6 m s−1, only does the σ0 in Ku band slightly increase by 0.2–0.5 dB for thick oil. The study shows that high-resolution altimeter data can certainly help better evaluate the thickness of oil spill, particularly at low wind speeds.
We used a 5 year time series of transport, temperature, and salinity from moorings at the head of Barrow Canyon to describe seasonal variations and construct a 37 year transport hindcast. The latter was developed from summer/winter regressions of transport against Bering-Chukchi winds. Seasonally, the regressions differ due to baroclinicity, stratification, spatial, and seasonal variations in winds and/or the surface drag coefficients. The climatological annual cycle consists of summer downcanyon (positive and toward the Arctic Ocean) transport of ∼0.45 Sv of warm, freshwaters; fall (October–December) upcanyon transport of ∼−0.1 Sv of cooler, saltier waters; and negligible net winter (January–April) mass transport when shelf waters are saline and near-freezing. Fall upcanyon transports may modulate shelf freezeup, and negligible winter transports could influence winter water properties. Transport variability is largest in fall and winter. Daily transport probability density functions are negatively skewed in all seasons and seasonal variations in kurtosis are a function of transport event durations. The latter may have consequences for shelf-basin exchanges. The climatology implies that the Chukchi shelf circulation reorganizes annually: in summer ∼40% of the summer Bering Strait inflow leaves the shelf via Barrow Canyon, but from fall through winter all of it exits via the western Chukchi or Central Channel. We estimate a mean transport of ∼0.2 Sv; ∼50% less than estimates at the mouth of the canyon. Transport discrepancies may be due to inflows from the Beaufort shelf and the Chukchi shelfbreak, with the latter entering the western side of the canyon.
The dynamics of near equatorial river plumes (NERPs) are investigated using a highly idealized model. The spreading of a NERP from an eastern boundary is characterized by a continuous shedding of westward propagating eddies. This process transfers the bulk of the freshwater discharge to the deep ocean, thus distinguishing NERPs from their midlatitude counterparts. In the long-term limit, a NERP can be rationalized as a β-plume emanating from a coastal source. The evolution of NERPs in an unstratified basin is quite different from that in a stratified one. The spin-up in an unstratified basin is characterized by the formation of an anticyclonic bulge, which spreads westward thus creating a density stratification that favors the subsequent development of smaller and faster moving secondary eddies. The collision of the secondary eddies with the leading bulge arrests the effects of mixing thus allowing the further spreading of the buoyancy anomaly. In a stratified basin, the generation of anticyclonic eddies is accompanied by a concurrent generation of cyclones, which pump saltier waters to the surface hence leading to smaller sea surface salinity (SSS) anomalies. NERPs are sensitive to variations of the freshwater flux (Qfw) and the geomorphological setting. Larger Qfw generates bigger eddies, which spread at a rate proportional to the square root of the normalized flux. Wide shelves allow the interaction of the eddies with the bottom, thus promoting a cyclonic shift of the axis of the eddy train. The inclination of the coast affects the dynamical balance controlling the near-field behavior of NERPs.
Observations from two companion field programs—Origins of the Kuroshio and Mindanao Current (OKMC) and Observations of Kuroshio Transport Variability (OKTV)—are used here to examine the Kuroshio's temporal and spatial evolution. Kuroshio strength and velocity structure were measured between June 2012 and November 2014 with pressure-sensor equipped inverted echo sounders (PIESs) and upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) deployed across the current northeast of Luzon, Philippines, and east of Taiwan with an 8 month overlap in the two arrays' deployment periods. The time-mean net (i.e., integrated from the surface to the bottom) absolute transport increases downstream from 7.3 Sv (±4.4 Sv standard error) northeast of Luzon to 13.7 Sv (±3.6 Sv) east of Taiwan. The observed downstream increase is consistent with the return flow predicted by the simple Sverdrup relation and the mean wind stress curl field over the North Pacific (despite the complicated bathymetry and gaps along the North Pacific western boundary). Northeast of Luzon, the Kuroshio—bounded by the 0 m s−1 isotach—is shallower than 750 dbar, while east of Taiwan areas of positive flow reach to the seafloor (3000 m). Both arrays indicate a deep counterflow beneath the poleward-flowing Kuroshio (–10.3 ± 2.3 Sv by Luzon and −12.5 ± 1.2 Sv east of Taiwan). Time-varying transports and velocities indicate the strong influence at both sections of westward propagating eddies from the ocean interior. Topography associated with the ridges east of Taiwan also influences the mean and time-varying velocity structure there.
A new Ku-band geophysical model function (GMF), which includes sea surface temperature (SST) dependence, named NSCAT-5, is developed for improved RapidScat wind retrieval. The RapidScat scatterometer instrument mounted on the International Space Station (ISS) provides near-global wind data over the oceans. Starting from the existing NSCAT-4 GMF, the variation of is approximated as a second-order Taylor expansion in sea surface temperature for each given wind speed , and the fitting coefficients are obtained from both observed and simulated radar cross sections, using ASCAT winds, of either vertical or horizontal polarizations. Furthermore, an intercalibration is performed which aligns the distribution of RapidScat wind speeds to that of ASCAT. NSCAT-5 is obtained by correcting NSCAT-4 with SST dependencies and intercalibration information. Validation of the new RapidScat wind products retrieved using NSCAT-5 shows clear improvements over those obtained with NSCAT-4: Wind inversion residuals no longer depend on SST, and the wind speed Probability Density Functions (PDFs) are closely overlapping with those of ASCAT. Also, RapidScat NSCAT-5 minus ASCAT wind speed differences show no SST dependence. The work presented here opens a door for further improving the quality of wind products from Ku-band backscatter measurements, and helps to build a long-term and consistent essential Climate Data Record (CDR) of scatterometer winds.
We examine the mean pathways, transit timescales, and transformation of waters flowing from the Pacific and the marginal seas through the Indian Ocean (IO) on their way toward the South Atlantic within a high-resolution ocean/sea-ice model. The model fields are analyzed from a Lagrangian perspective where water volumes are tracked as they enter the IO. The IO contributes 12.6 Sv to Agulhas leakage, which within the model is 14.1 ± 2.2 Sv, the rest originates from the South Atlantic. The Indonesian Through-flow constitutes about half of the IO contribution, is surface bound, cools and salinificates as it leaves the basin within 10–30 years. Waters entering the IO south of Australia are at intermediate depths and maintain their temperature-salinity properties as they exit the basin within 15–35 years. Of these waters, the contribution from Tasman leakage is 1.4 Sv. The rest stem from recirculation from the frontal regions of the Southern Ocean. The marginal seas export 1.0 Sv into the Atlantic within 15–40 years, and the waters cool and freshen on-route. However, the model's simulation of waters from the Gulfs of Aden and Oman are too light and hence overly influenced by upper ocean circulations. In the Cape Basin, Agulhas leakage is well mixed. On-route, temperature-salinity transformations occur predominantly in the Arabian Sea and within the greater Agulhas Current region. Overall, the IO exports at least 7.9 Sv from the Pacific to the Atlantic, thereby quantifying the strength of the upper cell of the global conveyor belt.
The causes of surf zone morphologic changes observed along a sandy beach onshore of a submarine canyon were investigated using field observations and a numerical model (Delft3D/SWAN). Numerically simulated morphologic changes using four different sediment transport formulae reproduce the temporal and spatial patterns of net cross-shore integrated (between 0 and 6.5 m water depths) accretion and erosion observed in a ∼300 m alongshore region, a few hundred meters from the canyon head. The observations and simulations indicate that the accretion or erosion results from converging or diverging alongshore currents driven primarily by breaking waves and alongshore pressure gradients. The location of convergence or divergence depends on the direction of the offshore waves that refract over the canyon, suggesting that bathymetric features on the inner shelf can have first-order effects on short-term nearshore morphologic change.
The major export route of dense water from the Nordic Seas into the North Atlantic is in the deep channel in Denmark Strait. Here currents have been monitored with one or two moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) since 1996. Volume transport estimates of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) so far were based on these data, which were regressed to the total transport of dense water in a numerical model. The resulting transport has been used in many publications. Here we present results from an extended five-mooring array deployed in 2014/2015, which included measurements outside the swift overflow core. This array provided the basis for new calculations to estimate the DSOW transports. Furthermore, a correction is proposed for biases detected on some ADCPs, which led to earlier underestimation of the flow in the lower part of the plume. Using the new method, the mean DSOW transport is estimated to be 3.2 Sv in the period 1996–2016, without a significant trend. Uncertainties are typically ±0.5 Sv. Beyond variations on the eddy scale, an empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) analysis of the velocity field reveals three dominant modes of variability: the first mode is roughly barotropic and corresponds to pulsations of the plume, the second mode represents the laterally shifting component of the plume's core position, and the third mode indicates the impact of the varying overflow thickness. Finally, DSOW transports are compared to the Faroe Bank Channel overflow transports, but no clear relationship is found.
Horizontal and vertical motions associated with coherent mesoscale structures, including eddies and meanders, are responsible for significant global transports of many properties, including heat and mass. Mesoscale vertical fluxes also influence upper ocean biological productivity by mediating the supply of nutrients into the euphotic layer, with potential impacts on the global carbon cycle. The Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) is a western boundary current region in the South Atlantic with intense mesoscale activity. This region has an active role in the genesis and transformation of water masses and thus is a critical component of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The collision between the Malvinas and Brazil Currents over the Patagonian shelf/slope creates an energetic front that translates offshore to form a vigorous eddy field. Recent improvements in gridded altimetric sea level anomaly fields allow us to track BMC mesoscale eddies with high spatial and temporal resolutions using an automated eddy tracker. We characterize the eddies across fourteen 5° × 5° subregions. Eddy-centric composites of tracers and geostrophic currents diagnosed from a global reanalysis of surface and in situ data reveal substantial subregional heterogeneity. The in situ data are also used to compute the evolving quasi-geostrophic vertical velocity (QG-ω) associated with each instantaneous eddy instance. The QG-ω eddy composites have the expected dipole patterns of alternating upwelling/downwelling, however, the magnitude and sign of azimuthally averaged vertical velocity varies among subregions. Maximum eddy values are found near fronts and sharp topographic gradients. In comparison with regional eddy composites, subregional composites provide refined information about mesoscale eddy heterogeneity.
Data derived from satellite-based observations, with buoy-based observations and assimilations, are used to calculate ocean Ekman layer transport and evaluate long-term trends in the Arctic Ocean over the period 1979–2014. The 36 year mean of upwelling (downwelling) is 3.7 ± 2.0 (–4.0 ± 2.2) Sv for the entire Arctic Basin, with ∼0.3 Sv net downwelling contributed mostly by the Canadian region. With regard to long-term trends, the annual mean upwelling (downwelling) over the entire Arctic Basin is increasing at a linear rate of 0.92 (–0.98) Sv/decade. The Canada/Alaska coasts and Beaufort and Laptev Seas are regions of greatest Ekman transport intensification. The central Arctic Ocean and Lincoln Sea also have an increasing trend in transport. The Canadian and Eurasian regions each account for about half the total vertical Ekman variations in the Arctic Basin.
Tropical cyclones may augment nutrients in the ocean surface layer through mixing, entrainment, and upwelling, triggering phytoplankton blooms in oligotrophic waters such as the South China Sea (SCS). Previous studies focused mainly on responses of marine environments to strong or slow-moving typhoons in the SCS. In this study, we analyze variations of chlorophyll a (Chl a) and oceanic conditions in the continental shelf region east of Hainan Island during the fast-moving tropical storm Washi and investigate its influences on phytoplankton bloom and related dynamic mechanisms. Results indicate that there was significant variation of Chl a concentration in the continental shelf region, with low values (about 0.1 mg m−3) before the storm and a 30% increase after the storm. This increase was spatially variable, much larger nearshore than offshore. Power spectral analysis of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data at a shelf site near the study region reveals strong near-inertial oscillations (NIOs) in the upper layer, with a period of about 36 h, close to the local inertial period. The NIOs intensified mixing and modified the stratification of the upper layer, inducing uplift of nutrients and Chl a into the mixed layer from below, and leading to surface Chl a increase. The relatively shallow nutricline and thermocline in the continental shelf region before the storm were favorable for upwelling of nutrients and generation of NIOs. Advection of nutrients from enhanced runoff during and after the storm may be responsible for the larger increase of the Chl a nearshore.
Wind field ensembles from six CMIP5 models force wave model time slices of the northeast Atlantic over the last three decades of the 20th and the 21st centuries. The future wave climate is investigated by considering the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios. The CMIP5 model selection is based on their ability to reconstruct the present (1971–2000) extratropical cyclone activity, but increased spatial resolution has also been emphasized. In total, the study comprises 35 wave model integrations, each about 30 years long, in total more than 1000 years. Here annual statistics of significant wave height are analyzed, including mean parameters and upper percentiles. There is general agreement among all models considered that the mean significant wave height is expected to decrease by the end of the 21st century. This signal is statistically significant also for higher percentiles, but less evident for annual maxima. The RCP8.5 scenario yields the strongest reduction in wave height. The exception to this is the north western part of the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, where receding ice cover gives longer fetch and higher waves. The upper percentiles are reduced less than the mean wave height, suggesting that the future wave climate has higher variance than the historical period.
A modeling approach is used to investigate the influence of the Agulhas on the southern Benguela system. Two climatological ROMS simulations are run that are identical except that in one of them the effect of the Agulhas is removed. Comparing their outputs allows for a clear indication of the role of the Agulhas on both the large-scale and shelf dynamics. About 15 Sv of the mean transport of the Benguela Current is shown to be contributed by Agulhas influx, with the most intense flow being associated with extreme turbulence and its meandering nature is a reflection of the passage of Agulhas Rings. The injection of warm water is particularly evident beyond the shelf-edge, producing a perennially intense cross-shelf density front that is enhanced during upwelling season. This gradient drives a jet that is fastest at the shelf-edge but that extends from the midshelf to at least 100 km beyond it and is associated with dynamic uplift via vortex squashing. Similarly generated is the Good Hope Jet that extends northwestward from the western Agulhas Bank. Turbulence associated with Agulhas leakage increases rapidly beyond the shelf-edge causing the upwelling front in the southern Benguela to be subject to intense mixing, leaving a relatively uniform front there. Locally generated regions of high turbulence exist in the vicinity of the shelf-edge jets as well as further north in association with the large filaments that originate from the perennial Lüderitz upwelling cell, with or without the influence of the Agulhas.
Measurements of waves and currents from freely drifting buoys are used to evaluate wave breaking parameterizations at the Mouth of the Columbia River, where breaking occurs in intermediate depths and in the presence of vertically sheared currents. Breaking waves are identified using images collected with cameras onboard the buoys, and the breaking activity is well-correlated with wave steepness. Vertical shear in the currents produces a frequency-dependent effective current that modifies the linear dispersion relation. Accounting for these sheared currents in the wavenumber spectrum is essential in calculating the correct wave steepness; without this, wave steepness can be over (under) estimated on opposing (following) currents by up to 20%. The observed bulk steepness values suggest a limiting value of 0.4. The observed fraction of breaking waves is in good agreement with several existing models, each based on wave steepness. Further, a semispectral model designed for all depth regimes also compares favorably with measured breaking fractions. In this model, the majority of wave breaking is predicted to occur in the higher frequency bands (i.e., short waves). There is a residual dependence on directional spreading, in which wave breaking decreases with increasing directional spread.
Turbulent and flow structure associated with breaking tidal bores are deliberately investigated on the basis of field measurements. High-resolution velocity and hydrographic data are collected in the middle Qiantang Estuary by a vertical array of acoustic Doppler velocimeters and optical backscatter sensors, collaborated with a bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler. Besides obvious variations in diurnal and spring-neap tidal cycles, the estuarine dynamics is featured by extreme asymmetry in flood and ebb tides. The flood tide is abnormally accelerated to generate tidal bores at the first 10 min or more, with breaking or undular configurations at the front. The occurrence of peak flow velocity, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and TKE dissipation rate (ε) is definitely associated with breaking bores, with their values several times to 2 orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding secondary peak values during the maximum ebb flows. Flow and turbulence dynamics are significantly affected by the tidal-bore Froude number. A sandwich ε structure is clear exhibited with the maximum value at the surface, secondary maximum near the bed, and the minimum at the intermediate. Dual TKE sources are indicated by an approximate local balance between shear production and dissipation near the bottom, and a top-down TKE dissipation using the modified Froude scaling in the vertical water column. The highly elevated dissipation by breaking bores is comparable to that by intense breaking waves in the surf zone, and the former potentially penetrates the entire water column to produce extreme sediment-resuspension events in combination with intense bottom shear stress.
A large-scale wave flume experiment has been carried out involving a T = 4 s regular wave with H = 0.85 m wave height plunging over a fixed barred beach profile. Velocity profiles were measured at 12 locations along the breaker bar using LDA and ADV. A strong undertow is generated reaching magnitudes of 0.8 m/s on the shoreward side of the breaker bar. A circulation pattern occurs between the breaking area and the inner surf zone. Time-averaged turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is largest in the breaking area on the shoreward side of the bar where the plunging jet penetrates the water column. At this location, and on the bar crest, TKE generated at the water surface in the breaking process reaches the bottom boundary layer. In the breaking area, TKE does not reduce to zero within a wave cycle which leads to a high level of "residual" turbulence and therefore lower temporal variation in TKE compared to previous studies of breaking waves on plane beach slopes. It is argued that this residual turbulence results from the breaker bar-trough geometry, which enables larger length scales and time scales of breaking-generated vortices and which enhances turbulence production within the water column compared to plane beaches. Transport of TKE is dominated by the undertow-related flux, whereas the wave-related and turbulent fluxes are approximately an order of magnitude smaller. Turbulence production and dissipation are largest in the breaker zone and of similar magnitude, but in the shoaling zone and inner surf zone production is negligible and dissipation dominates.
Concentrations of dimethylsulfide (DMS), measured in the Subarctic Pacific during summer 2010 and 2011, ranged from ∼1 to 40 nM, while dissolved dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) concentrations (range 13-23 nM) exceeded those of dissolved dimethyl sulfoniopropionate (DMSP) (range 1.3–8.8 nM). Particulate DMSP dominated the reduced sulfur pool, reaching maximum concentrations of 100 nM. Coastal and off shore waters exhibited similar overall DMS concentration ranges, but sea-air DMS fluxes were lower in the oceanic waters due to lower wind speeds. Surface DMS concentrations showed statistically significant correlations with various hydrographic variables including the upwelling intensity (r2 = 0.52, p < 0.001) and the Chlorophyll a/mixed layer depth ratio (r2 = 0.52, p < 0.001), but these relationships provided little predictive power at small scales. Stable isotope tracer experiments indicated that the DMSP cleavage pathway always exceeded the DMSO reduction pathway as a DMS source, leading to at least 85% more DMS production in each experiment. Gross DMS production rates were positively correlated with the upwelling intensity, while net rates of DMS production were significantly correlated to surface water DMS concentrations. This latter result suggests that our measurements captured dominant processes driving surface DMS accumulation across a coastal-oceanic gradient.
The relationship between storms and extreme ocean waves in the North Sea is assessed using a long-period wave data set and storms identified in the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). An ensemble sensitivity analysis is used to provide information on the spatial and temporal forcing from mean sea-level pressure and surface wind associated with extreme ocean wave height responses. Extreme ocean waves in the central North Sea arise due to intense extratropical cyclone winds from either the cold conveyor belt (northerly-wind events) or the warm conveyor belt (southerly-wind events). The largest wave heights are associated with northerly-wind events which tend to have stronger wind speeds and occur as the cold conveyor belt wraps rearward round the cyclone to the cold side of the warm front. The northerly-wind events provide a larger fetch to the central North Sea to aid wave growth. Southerly-wind events are associated with the warm conveyor belts of intense extratropical cyclones that develop in the left upper tropospheric jet exit region. Ensemble sensitivity analysis can provide early warning of extreme wave events by demonstrating a relationship between wave height and high pressure to the west of the British Isles for northerly-wind events 48 h prior. Southerly-wind extreme events demonstrate sensitivity to low pressure to the west of the British Isles 36 h prior.
Enhanced mesoscale eddy activities or tropical instability waves (TIWs) exist along the northern front of the cold tongue in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. In this study, we investigate seasonal variability of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) over this region and its associated dynamic mechanism using a global, eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model (OGCM) simulation, the equatorial mooring data, and satellite altimeter observations. The seasonal-varying enhanced EKE signals are found to expand westward from 100°W in June to 180°W in December between 0°N and 6°N. This westward expansion in EKE is closely connected to the barotropically-baroclinically unstable zonal flows that are in thermal-wind balance with the seasonal-varying thermocline trough along 4°N. By adopting an 1½-layer reduced-gravity model, we confirm that the seasonal perturbation of the thermocline trough is dominated by the anticyclonic wind stress curl forcing, which develops due to southerly winds along 4°N from June to December.
The atmosphere drives entire ocean motions, and yet the exchange of momentum between the atmosphere and ocean occurs in the thin layer where they meet, involving the smallest scales of turbulence. The Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR) project attempts to better understand this exchange using satellite observations with simplified physics to calculate global ocean currents. The goal is to continually improve the physics in OSCAR and more accurately model the currents. The theoretical study will help coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling efforts whereas the societal benefits of measuring ocean currents are broad, e.g., fish larval dispersion, heat transport, commercial shipping, and search and rescue.
Active and passive microwave signatures of the ocean can only depend on the ocean wave spectrum if bound and breaking waves are neglected. However, history has not been kind to attempts to explain both radiometer brightness temperatures (Tb) and normalized radar cross sections (σo) of the sea using the same ocean wave spectrum without bound and breaking waves. In this paper, we show that if bound and breaking waves are included in physical models of radiometer and scatterometer microwave signatures of the ocean, a single wave spectrum can explain both Tb and σo to reasonable accuracy. Bound waves are the roughness produced by gently breaking, or crumpling, waves that travel near the speed of the parent wave. Bound wave modeling is based on earlier work by Plant (1997) but using additional information about the slope probability distributions of the bound waves' parents. Breaking wave and foam modeling both build on the function Λ(cb) introduced by Phillips (1985), which describes the average length of breaking wavefronts on the ocean per unit area as a function of breaker velocity, cb. We model Λ(cb) as documented in Irisov and Plant (2016) where we show that the wave spectrum completely determines Λ(cb). We thus show here that the result of including bound and breaking waves in radiometer and scatterometer models of oceanic signatures is a much closer fit to data over a wide range of microwave frequencies and incidence angles using a single wave spectrum.
Biogeochemical feedbacks from benthic metabolism have been hypothesized as a potential mechanism to buffer some effects of ocean acidification on coral reefs. The article in JGR-Oceans by DeCarlo et al. demonstrates the importance of benthic community health on this feedback from Dongsha Atoll in the South China Sea.
An eddy pair off the Vietnam coast is one of the most important features of the summertime South China Sea circulation. Its variability is of interest due to its profound impact on regional climate, ecosystems, biological processes, and fisheries. This study examines the influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a basin-scale climatic mode, on the interannual variability of this regional eddy pair using satellite observational data and historical hydrographic measurements. Over the last three decades, the eddy pair strengthened in 1994 and 2002, and weakened in 2006, 2007, and 2008. It was absent in 1988, 1995, 1998, and 2010, coinciding with strong El Nino-to-La Nina transitions. Composite analyses showed that the strong transition events of ENSO led to radical changes in the summer monsoon, through the forcing of a unique sea surface temperature anomaly structure over the tropical Indo-Pacific basin. With weaker zonal wind, a more northward wind direction, and the disappearance of a pair of positive and negative wind stress curls, the eastward current jet turns northward along the Vietnam coast and the eddy pair disappears.
Mesoscale eddies are energetically dominant and pervasive over most of the world's oceans. Among them, many are subsurface intensified with strongest signals in the ocean interior such as mode-water eddies, which trap water masses with distinctive properties and carry them over long distances. With both Argo profiling floats and atmospheric reanalysis data we showed that the structure of these eddies obeys a universal rule. Hence their three-dimensional hydrographic fields can be readily reconstructed from very limited information. More interestingly, the volume of water trapped and moved by a mode-water eddy is much greater than previously thought; it has a three-compartment structure in the vertical with the mode water being sandwiched between two layers of notably different properties and accounting for only a portion of the total trapped volume.
A one-dimensional model is employed to reproduce the observed time evolution of hydrographic properties in the upper water column during winter, between 26 January and 11 March 2015, in a region north of Svalbard in the Nansen Basin of the Arctic Ocean. From an observed initial state, vertical diffusion equations for temperature and salinity give the hydrographic conditions at a later stage. Observations of microstructure are used to synthesize profiles of vertical diffusivity, K, representative of varying wind forcing conditions. The ice-ocean heat and salt fluxes at the ice-ocean interface are implemented as external source terms, estimated from the salt and enthalpy budgets, using friction velocity from the Rossby similarity drag relation, and the ice core temperature profiles. We are able to reproduce the temporal evolution of hydrography satisfactorily for two pairs of measured profiles, suggesting that the vertical processes dominated the observed changes. Sensitivity tests reveal a significant dependence on K. Variation in other variables, such as the temperature gradient of the sea ice, the fraction of heat going to ice melt, and the turbulent exchange coefficient for heat, are relatively less important. The increase in salinity as a result of freezing and brine release is approximately 10%, significantly less than that due to entrainment (90%) from beneath the mixed layer. Entrainment was elevated during episodic storm events, leading to melting. The results highlight the contribution of storms to mixing in the upper Arctic Ocean and its impact on ice melt and mixed-layer salt and nutrient budgets.
The coastal streamflow flux from the Arctic drainage basin is an important driver of dynamics in the coupled ice-ocean system. Comprising more than one third of the total freshwater flux into the Arctic Ocean, streamflow is a key component of the regional and global freshwater cycle. To better represent the coupling of the streamflow flux to the ocean, we have developed and applied the RVIC streamflow routing model within the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM). The RASM is a high-resolution regional Earth System Model whose domain includes all of the Arctic drainage basin. In this paper, we introduce the RVIC streamflow routing model, detailing its application within RASM and its advancements in terms of representing high-resolution streamflow processes. We evaluate model simulated streamflow relative to in situ observations and demonstrate a method for improving model performance using a simple optimization procedure. We also present a new, spatially and temporally consistent, high-resolution data set of coastal freshwater fluxes for the Arctic drainage basin and surrounding areas that is based on a fully coupled RASM simulation and intended for use in Arctic Ocean modeling applications. This data set is evaluated relative to other coastal streamflow data sets commonly used by the ocean modeling community. We demonstrate that the RASM-simulated streamflow flux better represents the annual cycle than existing data sets, especially in ungauged areas. Finally, we assess the impact that streamflow has on the coupled ice-ocean system, finding that the presence of streamflow leads to reduced sea surface salinity, increased sea surface temperatures, and decreased sea ice thickness.
Improving intensity simulation and forecast of tropical cyclones has always been a challenge, although in recent years the track forecasts have been remarkably improved. In this study, we explore the sensitivity of typhoon simulation to three physical processes using a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-wave model. Two storms, a strong and a weak one, have been chosen. The effects of wave breaking induced sea spray, ocean vertical mixing associated with nonbreaking surface waves, and sea surface cooling due to intense rainfall are assessed by means of a set of numerical experiments. The results show and confirm that sea spray leads to an increase of typhoon intensity by enhancing the air-sea heat flux, while nonbreaking wave-induced vertical mixing and rainfall lead to a decrease. Each process can be relevant, depending on wind and wave conditions. These can vary dramatically when typhoons interact with not sufficiently well-defined coastal areas, typically an archipelago. Compared with the control runs, when all the three physical processes are considered, the (absolute) difference between the modeled sea level pressure and best track data is reduced from 26.05 to 0.70 hPa for typhoon Haiyan, and from −9.42 to −8.67 hPa for typhoon Jebi. We have found a steady overestimate of the dimensions of the typhoons. We have verified an extreme sensitivity to the initial conditions, especially when small differences in the typhoon track may imply different relevance of the physical processes, like the ones we have considered, governing the evolution of the storm.
Over the past 17 years, the western boundary current system of the Labrador Sea has been closely observed by maintaining the 53°N observatory (moorings and shipboard station data) measuring the top-to-bottom flow field offshore from the Labrador shelf break. Volume transports for the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) components were calculated using different methods, including gap filling procedures for deployment periods with suboptimal instrument coverage. On average the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) carries 30.2 ± 6.6 Sv of NADW southward, which are almost equally partitioned between Labrador Sea Water (LSW, 14.9 ± 3.9 Sv) and Lower North Atlantic Deep Water (LNADW, 15.3 ± 3.8 Sv). The transport variability ranges from days to decades, with the most prominent multiyear fluctuations at interannual to near decadal time scales (±5 Sv) in the LNADW overflow water mass. These long-term fluctuations appear to be in phase with the NAO-modulated wind fluctuations. The boundary current system off Labrador occurs as a conglomerate of nearly independent components, namely, the shallow Labrador Current, the weakly sheared LSW range, and the deep baroclinic, bottom-intensified current core of the LNADW, all of which are part of the cyclonic Labrador Sea circulation. This structure is relatively stable over time, and the 120 km wide boundary current is constrained seaward by a weak counterflow which reduces the deep water export by 10–15%.
The Eastern Pacific Fresh Pool (EPFP) is a large region of low sea surface salinity (SSS) defined by values lower than 34 practical salinity scale within (5°S–30°N, 75°W–180°W). The fresh pool dynamically responds to strong regional and seasonally varying ocean-atmosphere-land interactions (including monsoon rain, trade and gap winds, and strong currents). Using more than 5 years of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) and complementary satellite wind, rain, currents, and sea surface temperature data together with a historical ensemble of in situ products, the present study explores the seasonal and interannual dynamics of the fresh pool over the period 2004–2015. An important interannual variability of the maximal surface extension of the EPFP over the past decade is revealed with two extreme events (2012, 2015) occurring during the SMOS satellite period. These extremes are found to be related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases and associated anomalies of precipitation, surface currents, and trade wind in the central Pacific. In 2012 (La Niña), stronger trade winds coupled with a deficit of precipitation induced a minimum extension of the pool during the rainy season. Whereas, during the strong El Niño 2014–2015, the EPFP extension reached an unprecedented maximum value. A modification of the atmospheric freshwater fluxes and ocean surface currents during winter 2014 is found to have favored the onset of this abnormal fresh event.
A new bio-optical algorithm based on the green and red bands of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) is developed to differentiate the harmful algal blooms of Prorocentrum donghaiense Lu (P. donghaiense) from diatom blooms in the East China Sea (ECS). Specifically, a novel green-red index (GRI), actually an indicator for a(510) of bloom waters, is retrieved from a semianalytical bio-optical model based on the green and red bands of phytoplankton-absorption and backscattering spectra. In addition, a MERIS-based diatom index (DIMERIS) is derived by adjusting a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) diatom index algorithm to the MERIS bands. Finally, bloom types are effectively differentiated in the feature spaces of the green-red index and DIMERIS. Compared with three previous MERIS-based quasi-analytical algorithm (QAA) algorithms and three existing classification methods, the proposed GRI and classification method have the best discrimination performance when using the MERIS data. Further validations of the algorithm by using several MERIS image series and near-concurrent in situ observations indicate that our algorithm yields the best classification accuracy and thus can be used to reliably detect and classify P. donghaiense and diatom blooms in the ECS. This is the first time that the MERIS data have been used to identify bloom types in the ECS. Our algorithm can also be used for the successor of the MERIS, the Ocean and Land Color Instrument, which will aid the long-term observation of species succession in the ECS.
The objective of the present paper is to elucidate possible effects of sea spray on the momentum transfer in marine boundary layer under strong wind forcing conditions by performing direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent, droplet-laden airflow over a waved water surface. Three-dimensional, turbulent Couette airflow is considered in DNS as a model of a constant-flux layer in the atmospheric surface layer. Two-dimensional stationary waves at the water surface are prescribed and assumed to be unaffected by the airflow and/or droplets. Droplets are considered as nondeformable spheres and tracked in a Lagrangian framework, and their impact on the carrier flow is modeled with the use of a point-force approximation. The results show that drops dynamics and their impact on the carrier airflow is controlled by the drops velocity at injection, the ratio of drops gravitational settling velocity versus the product of air friction velocity and Karman constant ( ), and the wave slope, ka. Drops injected into the flow with the surrounding airflow velocity reduce the turbulent air-stress and increase mean air velocity as compared to the droplet-free case. On the other hand, the opposite effect is observed for drops injected with velocity equal to the water surface velocity, which increase the turbulent air stress and reduce the mean wind velocity. This modification of the airflow by drops is most pronounced for the ratio , increases with drops mass loading, and is reduced for steeper waves and smaller settling velocity.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a key process in the global redistribution of heat. The AMOC is defined as the maximum of the overturning stream function, which typically occurs near 30°N in the North Atlantic. The RAPID mooring array has provided full-depth, basinwide, continuous estimates of this quantity since 2004. Motivated by both the need to deliver near real-time data and optimization of the array to reduce costs, we consider alternative configurations of the mooring array. Results suggest that the variability observed since 2004 could be reproduced by a single tall mooring on the western boundary and a mooring to 1500 m on the eastern boundary. We consider the potential future evolution of the AMOC in two generations of the Hadley Centre climate models and a suite of additional CMIP5 models. The modeling studies show that deep, basinwide measurements are essential to capture correctly the future decline of the AMOC. We conclude that, while a reduced array could be useful for estimates of the AMOC on subseasonal to decadal time scales as part of a near real-time data delivery system, extreme caution must be applied to avoid the potential misinterpretation or absence of a climate time scale AMOC decline that is a key motivation for the maintenance of these observations.
Two empirical algorithms are developed for wave mode images measured from the synthetic aperture radar aboard Sentinel-1 A. The first method, called CWAVE_S1A, is an extension of previous efforts developed for ERS2 and the second method, called Fnn, uses the azimuth cutoff among other parameters to estimate significant wave heights (Hs) and average wave periods without using a modulation transfer function. Neural networks are trained using colocated data generated from WAVEWATCH III and independently verified with data from altimeters and in situ buoys. We use neural networks to relate the nonlinear relationships between the input SAR image parameters and output geophysical wave parameters. CWAVE_S1A performs well and has reduced precision compared to Fnn with Hs root mean square errors within 0.5 and 0.6 m, respectively. The developed neural networks extend the SAR's ability to retrieve useful wave information under a large range of environmental conditions including extratropical and tropical cyclones in which Hs estimation is traditionally challenging.
We investigated physical forcing of late summer chlorophyll a (chl a) blooms in the oligotrophic eastern North Pacific Ocean by using ocean reanalysis and satellite data. Relatively large chl a blooms as defined in this study occurred in August–October following sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly (SSTA) decreases, mixed layer deepening, and temperature and salinity increases at the bottom of the mixed layer. These physical conditions were apparently induced by the entrainment of subsurface water resulting from the destabilization of the surface layer caused by anomalous northward Ekman transport of subtropical waters of higher salinity. Salinity-normalized total alkalinity data provide supporting evidence for nutrient supply by the entrainment process. We next investigated the impact of including information about the entrainment on bloom identification. The results of analyses using reanalysis data and of those using only satellite data showed large SSTA decreases when the northward Ekman salinity transports were large, implying that the entrainment of subsurface water is well represented in both types of data. After surface-destabilizing conditions were established, relatively high surface chl a concentrations were observed. The use of SST information can further improve the detection of high chl a concentrations. Although the detection of high chl a concentrations would be enhanced by finer data resolution and the inclusion of biogeochemical parameters in the ocean reanalysis, our results obtained by using existing reanalysis data as well as recent satellite data are valuable for better understanding and prediction of lower trophic ecosystem variability.
Previous studies have shown that regional sea level exhibits interannual and decadal variations associated with the modes of climate variability. A better understanding of those low-frequency sea level variations benefits the detection and attribution of climate change signals. Nonetheless, the contributions of thermosteric, halosteric, and mass sea level components to sea level variability and trend patterns remain unclear. By focusing on signals associated with dominant climate modes in the Indo-Pacific region, we estimate the interannual and decadal fingerprints and trend of each sea level component utilizing a multivariate linear regression of two adjoint-based ocean reanalyses. Sea level interannual, decadal, and trend patterns primarily come from thermosteric sea level (TSSL). Halosteric sea level (HSSL) is of regional importance in the Pacific Ocean on decadal time scale and dominates sea level trends in the northeast subtropical Pacific. The compensation between TSSL and HSSL is identified in their decadal variability and trends. The interannual and decadal variability of temperature generally peak at subsurface around 100 m but that of salinity tend to be surface-intensified. Decadal temperature and salinity signals extend deeper into the ocean in some regions than their interannual equivalents. Mass sea level (MassSL) is critical for the interannual and decadal variability of sea level over shelf seas. Inconsistencies exist in MassSL trend patterns among various estimates. This study highlights regions where multiple processes work together to control sea level variability and change. Further work is required to better understand the interaction of different processes in those regions.
We examine the temporal means and variability of the semidiurnal internal tide energy fluxes in 1/25° global simulations of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) and in a global archive of 79 historical moorings. Low-frequency flows, a major cause of internal tide variability, have comparable kinetic energies at the mooring sites in model and observations. The computed root-mean-square (RMS) variability of the energy flux is large in both model and observations and correlates positively with the time-averaged flux magnitude. Outside of strong generation regions, the normalized RMS variability (the RMS variability divided by the mean) is nearly independent of the flux magnitudes in the model, and of order 23% or more in both the model and observations. The spatially averaged flux magnitudes in observations and the simulation agree to within a factor of about 1.4 and 2.4 for vertical mode-1 and mode-2, respectively. The difference in energy flux computed from the full-depth model output versus model output subsampled at mooring instrument depths is small. The global historical archive is supplemented with six high-vertical resolution moorings from the Internal Waves Across the Pacific (IWAP) experiment. The model fluxes agree more closely with the high-resolution IWAP fluxes than with the historical mooring fluxes. The high variability in internal tide energy fluxes implies that internal tide fluxes computed from short observational records should be regarded as realizations of a highly variable field, not as "means" that are indicative of conditions at the measurement sites over all time.
Photosynthetic conversion of to organic carbon and the transport of this carbon from the surface to the deep ocean is an important regulator of atmospheric . To understand the controls on carbon fluxes in a productive region impacted by upwelling, we measured biological productivity via multiple methods during a cruise in Monterey Bay, California. We quantified net community production and gross primary production from measurements of /Ar and triple isotopes ( ), respectively. We simultaneously conducted incubations measuring the uptake of 14C, , and , and nitrification, and deployed sediment traps. At the start of the cruise (Phase 1) the carbon cycle was at steady state and the estimated net community production was 35(10) and 35(8) mmol C m−2 d−1 from /Ar and 15N incubations, respectively, a remarkably good agreement. During Phase 1, net primary production was 96(27) mmol C m−2 d−1 from C uptake, and gross primary production was 209(17) mmol C m−2 d−1 from . Later in the cruise (Phase 2), recently upwelled water with higher nutrient concentrations entered the study area, causing 14C and uptake to increase substantially. Continuous /Ar measurements revealed submesoscale variability in water mass structure and likely productivity in Phase 2 that was not evident from the incubations. These data demonstrate that /Ar and incubation-based NCP estimates can give equivalent results in an N-limited, coastal system, when the nonsteady state fluxes are negligible or can be quantified.
We used salinity and potential alkalinity data from hydrographic observations to investigate surface mixing ratios in the Kuroshio-Oyashio mixed water region in the western North Pacific. In addition to mixing between the Kuroshio Extension (KE) and Oyashio, we assessed freshwater input/removal. A mixing scenario with three end-members was assumed in the surface layer ≤100 m. The results indicate that water masses near the sea surface in the Kuroshio-Oyashio mixed water region were mainly the result of mixing between the KE and Oyashio. The freshwater contribution was approximately 2.2% at depth 10 m. The volume of freshwater estimated from this percentage was consistent with surface water budgets estimated from reanalysis precipitation and evaporation data. The estimated mixing ratio of the KE (rk) along the quasi-stationary jet in the western North Pacific, which splits from the KE and flows northeastward toward the subarctic region, decreased downstream from 95% to 27% in only 42 days, suggesting that water properties were changed rapidly by mixing. Correlation between rk around the quasi-stationary jet and nutrients concentration was significantly negative in the layer where photosynthesis was negligible, indicating that the mixing between the KE and Oyashio is an important determinant of the horizontal distribution of nutrients in this area.
Ocean surface vector wind fields from reanalysis data sets and scatterometer-derived gridded products are analyzed over the Nordic Seas and the northern North Atlantic for the time period from 2000 to 2009. The data sets include the National Center for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis 2 (NCEPR2), Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR), Cross-Calibrated Multiplatform (CCMP) wind product version 1.1 and recently released version 2.0, and QuikSCAT. The goal of the study is to assess discrepancies across the wind vector fields in the data sets and demonstrate possible implications of these differences for ocean modeling. Large-scale and mesoscale characteristics of winds are compared at interannual, seasonal, and synoptic timescales. A cyclone tracking methodology is developed and applied to the wind fields to compare cyclone characteristics in the data sets. Additionally, the winds are evaluated against observations collected from meteorological buoys deployed in the Iceland and Irminger Seas. The agreement among the wind fields is better for longer time and larger spatial scales. The discrepancies are clearly apparent for synoptic timescales and mesoscales. CCMP, ASR, and CFSR show the closest overall agreement with each other. Substantial biases are found in the NCEPR2 winds. Numerical sensitivity experiments are conducted with a coupled ice-ocean model forced by different wind fields. The experiments demonstrate differences in the net surface heat fluxes during storms. In the experiment forced by NCEPR2 winds, there are discrepancies in the large-scale wind-driven ocean dynamics compared to the other experiments.
We present measurements from two shipboard surveys conducted in summer 2012 that sampled the rim current system around the Nordic Seas from Fram Strait to Denmark Strait. The data reveal that, along a portion of the western boundary of the Nordic Seas, the East Greenland Current (EGC) has three distinct components. In addition to the well-known shelfbreak branch, there is an inshore branch on the continental shelf as well as a separate branch offshore of the shelfbreak. The inner branch contributes significantly to the overall freshwater transport of the rim current system, and the outer branch transports a substantial amount of Atlantic-origin Water equatorward. Supplementing our measurements with historical hydrographic data, we argue that the offshore branch is a direct recirculation of the western branch of the West Spitsbergen Current in Fram Strait. The total transport of the shelfbreak EGC (the only branch sampled consistently in all of the sections) decreased toward Denmark Strait. The estimated average transport of dense overflow water ( 27.8 kg/m3 and θ > 0°C) in the shelfbreak EGC was 2.8 ± 0.7 Sv, consistent with previous moored measurements. For the three sections that crossed the entire EGC system the freshwater flux, relative to a salinity of 34.8, ranged from 127 ± 13 to 81 ± 8 mSv. The hydrographic data reveal that, between Fram Strait and Denmark Strait, the core of the Atlantic-origin Water in the shelfbreak EGC cools and freshens but changes very little in density.
Ocean surface waves can play an active role in climate systems, but they are often ignored in Global Climate Models (GCMs). Wave-dependent surface roughness was implemented within the Atmospheric GCM (MRI-AGCM) using the spectral wave model WAVEWATCH III. Two types of wave-dependent roughness, due to wave steepness and to wave age, were considered. Climate simulations with wave-dependent roughness were compared to simulations with just wind speed-dependent roughness. In climate simulation with wave steepness-dependent roughness, the spatial distribution of roughness is correlated to that of swell dominance. In simulation with wave age-dependent roughness, the spatial distribution of roughness is correlated to that of wind direction stationarity. Both simulations show reduced roughness in the tropics, which leads to an enhancement of surface wind speeds by up to 15%; these enhanced wind speeds are closer to observations compared with the baseline simulation with just wind speed-dependent roughness. We find that the reduced roughness and the enhanced wind speeds in the tropics lead to significant changes in atmospheric circulation, as in Hadley circulation and precipitation. The characteristic responses of the Hadley circulation and precipitation to changing sea surface roughness are presented.
Track and intensity are key aspects of tropical cyclone behavior. Intensity may be impacted by the upper-ocean heat content relevant for TC intensification (known as Tdy) and barrier layer thickness (BLT). Here the variability of Tdy and BLT in the South West Indian Ocean and their relationships with tropical cyclones are investigated. It is shown that rapid cyclone intensification is influenced by large Tdy values, thick barrier layers and the presence of anticyclonic eddies. For TC generation in the South West Indian Ocean, the parameter Tdy was found to be important. Large BLT values overlay with large Tdy values during summer. Both fields are modulated by the westward propagation of Rossby waves, which are often associated with ENSO. For example, the 1997–1998 El Niño shows a strong signal in Tdy, SST, and BLT over the South West Indian Ocean. After this event, an increasing trend in Tdy occurred over most of the basin which may be associated with changes in atmospheric circulation. Increasing SST, Power Dissipation Index and frequency of Category 5 tropical cyclones also occurred from 1980 to 2010. To further examine the links between tropical cyclones, Tdy, and BLT, the ocean response to Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Bansi that developed near Madagascar during January 2015 was analyzed. Its unusual track was found to be linked with the strengthening of the monsoonal north westerlies while its rapid intensification from Category 2 to Category 4 was linked to a high-Tdy region, associated with a warm core eddy and large BLT.
We diagnosed the effect of various physical processes on the distribution of mixed-layer colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and a sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer during the Southern Ocean Gas Exchange Experiment (SO GasEx). The biochemical upper ocean state estimate uses in situ and satellite biochemical and physical data in the study region, including CDOM (absorption coefficient and spectral slope), SF6, hydrography, and sea level anomaly. Modules for photobleaching of CDOM and surface transport of SF6 were coupled with an ocean circulation model for this purpose. The observed spatial and temporal variations in CDOM were captured by the state estimate without including any new biological source term for CDOM, assuming it to be negligible over the 26 days of the state estimate. Thermocline entrainment and photobleaching acted to diminish the mixed-layer CDOM with time scales of 18 and 16 days, respectively. Lateral advection of CDOM played a dominant role and increased the mixed-layer CDOM with a time scale of 12 days, whereas lateral diffusion of CDOM was negligible. A Lagrangian view on the CDOM variability was demonstrated by using the SF6 as a weighting function to integrate the CDOM fields. This and similar data assimilation methods can be used to provide reasonable estimates of optical properties, and other physical parameters over the short-term duration of a research cruise, and help in the tracking of tracer releases in large-scale oceanographic experiments, and in oceanographic process studies.
Warm waters flood the continental shelf of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas in West Antarctica, driving rapid basal melt of ice shelves. In contrast, waters on the continental shelf in East Antarctica are cooler and ice shelves experience relatively low rates of basal melt. An exception is provided by the Totten and Moscow University ice shelves on the Sabrina Coast, where satellite-derived basal melt rates are comparable to West Antarctica. Recent oceanographic observations have revealed that relatively warm (∼−0.4°C) modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) enters the cavity beneath the Totten Ice Shelf through a 1100 m deep trough, delivering sufficient heat to drive rapid basal melt. Here we use observations from a recent summer survey to show that mCDW is widespread on the continental shelf of the Sabrina Coast, forming a warm (up to 0.3°C) and saline (34.5–34.6) bottom layer overlaid by cold (∼freezing point) and fresh (salinity ∼34.3) Winter Water. Dense Shelf Water is not observed. A 1000 deep m trough allows water at −1.3°C to reach the Moscow University ice-shelf cavity to drive basal melt. Freshening by addition of glacial meltwater is widespread on the southern shelf at depths above 300–400 m, with maximum meltwater concentrations up to 4–5 ml L−1 observed in outflows from the ice-shelf cavities. Our observations indicate that the ocean properties on the Sabrina Coast more resemble those found on the continental shelf of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas than those typical of East Antarctica.
Tidal straining is known to be an important factor for the generation of residual currents and transports of suspended matter in the coastal ocean. Recent modeling studies and field experiments have revealed a new type of "slope-induced" tidal straining, in which the horizontal density gradient required for this process is induced by the presence of a slope rather than by river runoff (as in classical tidal straining). Slope-induced tidal straining is investigated here with the help of an idealized numerical model, and results are compared to a recent data set from the East China Sea providing first direct observational evidence. The focus of this study is on the effect of rotation that was ignored in previous investigations. The model is shown to reproduce the key features of the observations, in particular the strain-induced generation of unstable stratification in the bottom boundary layer during periods of upslope flow. Rotation effects are found to significantly reduce the upslope tidal pumping of suspended material and also give rise to a newly identified pumping mechanism that results in a vigorous transport of suspended material along the slope. It is shown that slope-induced tidal straining is likely to be relevant for a wide range of oceanic slopes exposed to tidal motions.
The impact of a subgrid-scale ice thickness distribution (ITD) and two standard ice strength formulations on simulated Arctic sea ice climate is investigated. To this end, different model configurations with and without an ITD were tuned by minimizing the weighted mean error between the simulated and observed sea ice concentration, thickness, and drift speed with an semiautomatic parameter optimization routine. The standard ITD and ice strength parameterization lead to larger errors when compared to the simple single-category model with an ice strength parameterization based on the mean ice thickness. Interestingly, the simpler ice strength formulation, which depends linearly on the mean ice thickness, also reduces the model-observation error when using an ITD. For the ice strength parameterization that makes use of the ITD, the effective ice strength depends strongly on the number of thickness categories, so that introducing more categories can lead to overall thicker ice that is more easily deformed.
Snow on sea ice alters the properties of the underlying ice cover as well as associated physical and biological processes at the interfaces between atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean. The Antarctic snow cover persists during most of the year and contributes significantly to the sea-ice mass due to the widespread surface flooding and related snow-ice formation. Snow also enhances the sea-ice surface reflectivity of incoming shortwave radiation and determines therefore the amount of light being reflected, absorbed, and transmitted to the upper ocean. Here, we present results of a case study of spectral solar radiation measurements under Antarctic pack ice with an instrumented Remotely Operated Vehicle in the Weddell Sea in 2013. In order to identify the key variables controlling the spatial distribution of the under-ice light regime, we exploit under-ice optical measurements in combination with simultaneous characterization of surface properties, such as sea-ice thickness and snow depth. Our results reveal that the distribution of flooded and nonflooded sea-ice areas dominates the spatial scales of under-ice light variability for areas smaller than 100 m-by-100 m. However, the heterogeneous and highly metamorphous snow on Antarctic pack ice obscures a direct correlation between the under-ice light field and snow depth. Compared to the Arctic, light levels under Antarctic pack ice are extremely low during spring (<0.1%). This is mostly a result of the distinctly different dominant sea ice and snow properties with seasonal snow cover (including strong surface melt and summer melt ponds) in the Arctic and a year-round snow cover and widespread surface flooding in the Southern Ocean.
From 2003 to 2011, current surveys, using an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) mounted on the Ferry Naminoue, were conducted across the Tokara Strait (TkS). Resulting velocity sections (1234) were used to estimate major tidal current constituents in the TkS. The semidiurnal M2 tidal current (maximum amplitude 27 cm s−1) was dominant among all the tidal constituents, and the diurnal K1 tidal current (maximum amplitude 21 cm s−1) was the largest among all the diurnal tidal constituents. Over the section, the ratios, relative to M2, of averaged amplitudes of M2, S2, N2, K2, K1, O1, P1, and Q1 tidal currents were 1.00:0.44:0.21:0.12:0.56:0.33:0.14:0.10. Tidal currents estimated from the ship-mounted ADCP data were in good agreement with those from the mooring ADCP data. Their root-mean-square difference for the M2 tidal current amplitude was 2.0 cm s−1. After removing the tidal currents, the annual-mean of the net volume transport (NVT) through the TkS ± its standard derivation was 23.03 ± 3.31 Sv (Sv = 106 m3 s−1). The maximum (minimum) monthly mean NVT occurred in July (November) with 24.60 (21.47) Sv. NVT values from the ship-mounted ADCP were in good agreement with previous geostrophic volume transports calculated from conductivity temperature depth data, but the former showed much finer temporal structure than those from the geostrophic calculation.
The performance of a tentative method that disentangles the contributions of a low-mode internal tide on sea level from that of the balanced mesoscale eddies is examined using an idealized high resolution numerical simulation. This disentanglement is essential for proper estimation from sea level of the ocean circulation related to balanced motions. The method relies on an independent observation of the sea surface water density whose variations are 1/dominated by the balanced dynamics and 2/correlate with variations of potential vorticity at depth for the chosen regime of surface-intensified turbulence. The surface density therefore leads via potential vorticity inversion to an estimate of the balanced contribution to sea level fluctuations. The difference between instantaneous sea level (presumably observed with altimetry) and the balanced estimate compares moderately well with the contribution from the low-mode tide. Application to realistic configurations remains to be tested. These results aim at motivating further developments of reconstruction methods of the ocean dynamics based on potential vorticity dynamics arguments. In that context, they are particularly relevant for the upcoming wide-swath high resolution altimetric missions (SWOT).
Based on hydrographic data and vertical distributions of tropical species of fish larvae (Diogenichthys laternatus, Vinciguerria lucetia, Bregmaceros bathymaster, and Auxis spp.), effects of "Godzilla El Niño 2015–2016" in the shallow oxygen minimum zone off Mexico were analyzed. Zooplankton samples were collected during four cruises, before (February 2010 and April 2012) and during (June 2015 and March 2016) the warm event. Temporal series of sea surface temperature revealed that June 2015 was the warmest June of the last years. Conservative temperature was >2°C higher than normal in the surface mixed layer, and the suboxic layer (4.4 µmol/kg) reached as shallow as 100 m depth. Unexpected results were that larval abundances were relatively high during the warm event, unlike zooplankton volumes, which declined. Before the warm event, V. lucetia and Auxis spp. were more abundant in the surface mixed layer, while B. bathymaster and D. laternatus dominated in the thermocline and shallow hypoxic layer (44 µmol/kg). However, during the event in June 2015, all species were most abundant in the surface mixed layer, which implied that the species adapted to hypoxia had inverted their normal pattern of distribution, possibly as consequence of the rise of the suboxic layer; however, further observations are required to confirm this generality. Results showed no dramatic change in the total larval abundance during the warm event. Nevertheless, a differential response in their vertical distribution was evident in association with changes in the depth of the shallow hypoxic and suboxic layers. This might indicate adaptability of tropical species to prolonged periods of warming in the oceans.
Straits flows can impose a complex hydrodynamic environment with high seasonal variability and significant impacts to nearby water bodies. In the Straits of Mackinac, exchange flow between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron influences water quality and ecological processes, as well as the transport of any contaminants released in or near the straits. Although previous work has shown that a Helmholtz mode is responsible for the barotropic flow oscillations in the straits, baroclinic effects impose opposite surface and subsurface flows during the summer months. In this study, we use observations of currents and water temperatures from instruments deployed in the straits to validate a hydrodynamic model of the combined Lake Michigan-Huron system and then use the model results to investigate the baroclinic flow and determine the forcing mechanisms that drive exchange flow in the Straits of Mackinac. Analysis shows that although the Helmholtz mode drives a 3 day oscillation throughout the year, thermal stratification in the summer establishes a bidirectional flow that is governed by a shift from regional-scale to local-scale meteorological conditions. These results detail the seasonal variability in the straits, including the barotropic and baroclinic contributions to exchange flow and the influence of local atmospheric forcing on transport through the Straits of Mackinac.
Three-dimensional (3-D) hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic versions of the MITgcm were applied to simulate the dynamics of the internal wave field (basin-scale seiches, nonlinear surges, and high-frequency nonlinear internal waves, NLIWs) in Cayuga Lake, NY. The simulations were performed using up to 226 million computational cells with several horizontal grid resolutions, varying from 450 × 450 m to 22 × 22 m. Vertical grid spacing was not varied and ranged from 0.5 to 2.95 m. The 22 × 22 m nonhydrostatic grid reproduced qualitatively the formation, propagation, and shoaling of observed NLIWs using >10 grid points along the wavelength and a grid lepticity λ of O(1). This ensured, respectively, that the waves were not aliased and physical dispersion predominated over numerical dispersion. Using a sensitivity analysis, we generalize that correctly simulating NLIWs in real domains, using second-order discretization, requires grid resolutions that are an order of magnitude smaller than the wavelength and amplitude with λ ∼ 2; consistent with published work on idealized domains. Local gyre-like circulation was simulated, near midbasin headlands, and transverse shoaling of NLIW packets on lateral boundaries was associated with topographic reflection and refraction, in agreement with published field observations from estuaries, which show NLIW propagation in long narrow quasi-2-D systems (e.g., Finger Lakes, lochs, fjords, estuaries, and straits) is fundamentally 3-D. These results, therefore, help fill the gap in understanding and correctly modeling the multiscale 3-D dynamics of NLIWs in complex natural systems.
Despite many recent developments of the parameterization for wave dissipation in spectral models, it is evident that when waves propagate onto strong adverse currents the rate of energy dissipation is not properly estimated. The issue of current-induced dissipation is studied through a comprehensive data set in the tidal inlet of Port Phillip Heads, Australia. The wave parameters analyzed are significantly modulated by the tidal currents. Wave height in conditions of opposing currents (ebb tide) can reach twice the offshore value, whereas during coflowing currents (flood), it can be reduced to half. The wind-wave model SWAN is able to reproduce the tide-induced modulation of waves and the results show that the variation of currents is the dominant factor in modifying the wave field. In stationary simulations, the model provides an accurate representation of wave height for slack and flood tides. During ebb tides, wave energy is highly overestimated over the opposing current jet. None of the four parameterizations for wave dissipation tested performs satisfactorily. A modification to enhance dissipation as a function of the local currents is proposed. It consists of the addition of a factor that represents current-induced wave steepening and it is scaled by the ratio of spectral energy to the threshold breaking level. The new term asymptotes to the original form as the current in the wave direction tends to zero. The proposed modification considerably improves wave height and mean period in conditions of adverse currents, whereas the good model performance in coflowing currents is unaltered.
Off-river coves and embayments provide accommodation space for sediment accumulation, particularly for sandy estuaries where high energy in the main channel prevents significant long-term storage of fine-grained material. Seasonal sediment inputs to Hamburg Cove in the Connecticut River estuary (USA) were monitored to understand the timing and mechanisms for sediment storage there. Unlike in freshwater tidal coves, sediment was primarily trapped here during periods of low discharge, when the salinity intrusion extended upriver to the cove entrance. During periods of low discharge and high sediment accumulation, deposited sediment displayed geochemical signatures consistent with a marine source. Numerical simulations reveal that low discharge conditions provide several important characteristics that maximize sediment trapping. First, these conditions allow the estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) to be located in the vicinity of the cove entrance, which increases sediment concentrations during flood tide. Second, the saltier water in the main channel can enter the cove as a density current, enhancing near-bed velocities and resuspending sediment, providing an efficient delivery mechanism. Finally, higher salinity water accumulates in the deep basin of the cove, creating a stratified region that becomes decoupled from ebb currents, promoting retention of sediment in the cove. This process of estuarine-enhanced sediment accumulation in off-river coves will likely extend upriver during future sea level rise.
Tide-gauge data are one of the longest instrumental records of the ocean, but these data can be noisy, gappy, and biased. Previous studies have used empirical Bayes methods to infer the sea-level field from tide-gauge records but have not accounted for uncertainty in the estimation of model parameters. Here we compare to a fully Bayesian method that accounts for uncertainty in model parameters, and demonstrate that empirical Bayes methods underestimate the uncertainty in sea level inferred from tide-gauge records. We use a synthetic tide-gauge data set to assess the skill of the empirical and full Bayes methods. The empirical-Bayes credible intervals on the sea-level field are narrower and less reliable than the full-Bayes credible intervals: the empirical-Bayes 95% credible intervals are 42.8% narrower on average than are the full-Bayes 95% credible intervals; full-Bayes 95% credible intervals capture 95.6% of the true field values, while the empirical-Bayes 95% credible intervals capture only 77.1% of the true values, showing that parameter uncertainty has an important influence on the uncertainty of the inferred sea-level field. Most influential are uncertainties in model parameters for data biases (i.e., tide-gauge datums); letting data-bias parameters vary along with the sea-level process, but holding all other parameters fixed, the 95% credible intervals capture 92.8% of the true synthetic-field values. Results indicate that full Bayes methods are preferable for reconstructing sea-level estimates in cases where complete and accurate estimates of uncertainty are warranted.
Turbulent momentum flux in the typhoon boundary layer was measured at a turbulent flux tower in Southeast China using an eddy covariance technique during the passage of typhoons Fanapi and Megi in 2010. The anemometers were mounted on the cantilever bracket at the height of 26.6, 42.4, 60.4, and 82.9 m. The momentum flux in the typhoon boundary layer decreased with increasing height during the two typhoon passages. The decrease was nearly linear during the passage of the Typhoon Fanapi. However, in the boundary layer of the Typhoon Megi, the momentum flux at 26.6 m height was much greater than that at 42.4 m height. The cospectra of wind components showed that the enhanced flux at the bottom of the boundary layer was caused by small-scale turbulence with frequency in the range of 0.1–1 Hz and can be explained by the turbulent energy accumulation of small-scale turbulence.
Data from a shipboard hydrographic/velocity survey carried out in September 2013 of the region north of Svalbard in the Nansen Basin are analyzed to characterize the Atlantic Water (AW) boundary current as it flows eastward along the continental slope. Eight meridional transects across the current, spanning an alongstream distance of 180 km, allow for a detailed description of the current and the regional water masses. During the survey the winds were light and there was no pack-ice. The mean section reveals that the boundary current was O(40 km) wide, surface-intensified, with a maximum velocity of 20 cm/s. Its mean transport during the survey was 3.11 ± 0.33 Sv, of which 2.31 ± 0.29 Sv was AW. This suggests that the two branches of AW entering the Arctic Ocean via Fram Strait—the Yermak Plateau branch and the Svalbard branch—have largely combined into a single current by 30°E. At this location the boundary current meanders with a systematic change in its kinematic structure during offshore excursions. A potential vorticity analysis indicates that the flow is baroclinically unstable, consistent with previous observations of AW anticyclones offshore of the current as well as the presence of a near-field cyclone in this data set. Our survey indicates that only a small portion of the boundary current is diverted into the Kvitøya Trough (0.17 ± 0.08 Sv) and that the AW temperature/salinity signal is quickly eroded within the trough.
The Gulf of Lions in the northwestern Mediterranean is one of the few sites around the world ocean exhibiting deep open-ocean convection. Based on 6 year long (2009–2015) time series from a mooring in the convection region, shipborne measurements from repeated cruises, from 2012 to 2015, and glider measurements, we report evidence of bottom thick nepheloid layer formation, which is coincident with deep sediment resuspension induced by bottom-reaching convection events. This bottom nepheloid layer, which presents a maximum thickness of more than 2000 m in the center of the convection region, probably results from the action of cyclonic eddies that are formed during the convection period and can persist within their core while they travel through the basin. The residence time of this bottom nepheloid layer appears to be less than a year. In situ measurements of suspended particle size further indicate that the bottom nepheloid layer is primarily composed of aggregates between 100 and 1000 µm in diameter, probably constituted of fine silts. Bottom-reaching open ocean convection, as well as deep dense shelf water cascading that occurred concurrently some years, lead to recurring deep sediments resuspension episodes. They are key mechanisms that control the concentration and characteristics of the suspended particulate matter in the basin, and in turn affect the bathypelagic biological activity.
The Gulf of Lion is an important area of deep convection, where intense winter vertical mixing brings nutrients up from deeper layers, promoting the largest bloom in the Mediterranean at the end of winter/early spring. The DEWEX program conducted cruises in February and April 2013 to investigate the ecosystem level impacts of deep water convection. Zooplankton data were collected through net sampling and imaging with an Underwater Vision Profiler. In winter, low zooplankton abundance and biomass were observed in the Deep Convection Zone (DCZ) and higher values on its periphery. In spring, this pattern reversed with high biomass in the DCZ and lower values on the periphery. On average for the whole area, the potential grazing impact was estimated to increase by one order of magnitude from winter to spring. In April, all areas except the DCZ incurred top-down control by zooplankton on the phytoplankton stock. In the DCZ, the chlorophyll-a values remained high despite the high zooplankton biomass and carbon demand, indicating a sustained bottom-up control. The zooplankton community composition was comparable for both periods, typified by high copepod dominance, but with some differences between the DCZ and peripheral regions. In spring the DCZ was characterized by a strong increase in herbivorous species such as Centropages typicus and Calanus helgolandicus, and an increase in the number of large zooplankton individuals. Our study indicates that the DCZ is likely an area of both enhanced energy transfer to higher trophic levels and organic matter export in the North Western Mediterranean Sea.
The Ross Sea, a highly productive region of the Southern Ocean, is expected to experience warming during the next century along with reduced summer sea ice concentrations and shallower mixed layers. This study investigates how these climatic changes may alter phytoplankton assemblage composition, primary productivity, and export. Glider measurements are used to force a one-dimensional biogeochemical model, which includes diatoms and both solitary and colonial forms of Phaeocystis antarctica. Model performance is evaluated with glider observations, and experiments are conducted using projections of physical drivers for mid-21st and late-21st century. These scenarios reveal a 5% increase in primary productivity by midcentury and 14% by late-century and a proportional increase in carbon export, which remains approximately 18% of primary production. In addition, scenario results indicate diatom biomass increases while P. antarctica biomass decreases in the first half of the 21st century. In the second half of the century, diatom biomass remains relatively constant and P. antarctica biomass increases. Additional scenarios examining the independent contributions of expected future changes (temperature, mixed layer depth, irradiance, and surface iron inputs from melting ice) demonstrate that earlier availability of low light due to reduction of sea ice early in the growing season is the primary driver of productivity increases over the next century; shallower mixed layer depths additionally contribute to changes of assemblage composition and export. This study further demonstrates how glider data can be effectively used to facilitate model development and simulation, and inform interpretation of biogeochemical observations in the context of climate change.
This study examines the spatial variability of transport within the inner-shelf south of Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts, its time and space dependence, and its importance to the total volume exchanged between the nearshore and the coastal ocean. The exchange of water across the inner shelf is often considered to be driven primarily by wind forcing, yet the effects of small-scale O(1–10 km) variability on the total exchange have not been well quantified. Using a combination of high-resolution HF radar-based surface currents and a dense array of moorings to document the lateral variability of across-shelf exchange, the cumulative wind-driven across-shelf transport over the summer stratified period was less than the volume of the inner-shelf onshore of the 25 m isobath. Along-shelf variations in the wind-driven exchange were as large as the spatial mean of the wind-driven exchange. A spatially varying time-averaged circulation caused by tidal rectification resulted in across-shelf exchange larger in magnitude than, and independent of, the integrated wind-forced exchange. Coherent submesoscale eddies also occurred frequently within the domain due to flow-topography effects onshore and horizontal density gradients offshore, generally with lifespans shorter than 10 h, diameters smaller than 6 km, and vertical depths shallower than 10 m. The across-shelf volume transport due to eddies, estimated by seeding particles within the surface current fields, was more than half the wind-driven depth-dependent exchange. Thus, accounting for the potential coherent along-shelf variability present over the inner shelf can significantly increase estimates of the across-shelf transfer of water masses and particles.
Based on a multidecadal Pacific basin model simulation, interannual variations of the North Equatorial Current (NEC) are investigated. The model reproduces well the characteristics of the NEC and its interannual variability. The NEC transport is calculated as an integral of the westward velocity from 6°N to 21°N and from the surface to the 1200 m depth. The magnitude and standard deviation of the NEC transport increase from 46.5 and 3.9 Sv at 175°E to 66.7 and 6.5 Sv at 130°E, respectively, and both peak around 132°E prior to entering the bifurcation region. The NEC transport tends to be higher during positive Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) years but lower during negative ONI years with the maximum difference of more than 20 Sv. The interannual variability of the NEC transport is closely related to changes of the sea surface height in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and the increase of the NEC is mostly balanced by the increase in the North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) on the tropical gyre side. The present study further suggests a long-term decline of the NEC transport from 1993 to 2012, which is consistent with the patterns in the trend of wind stress curl. Transport anomalies reconstructed from the normal modes of zonal velocity suggest that the first baroclinic mode captures about 95% of the variance in the NEC transport, while the second mode adds only additional 3–4%. A 1.5-layer reduced gravity model further reveals that the first (second) baroclinic mode is driven primarily by the wind (thermal) forcing. The wind forcing plays a predominant role in determining the interannual variability in the NEC transport while the effect of the thermal forcing is rather limited.
The South-Atlantic Patagonian shelf is the largest chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) hot spot in Southern Ocean color images. While a persistent 1500 km long band of high Chl-a along the shelf-break front (SBF) is indicative of upwelling, the mechanisms that drive it are not entirely known. Along-front wind oscillations can enhance upwelling and provide a nutrient pumping mechanism at shelf-break fronts of western boundary currents. Here we assess wind-induced upwelling at the SBF off Patagonia from daily satellite Chl-a and winds, historical hydrographic observations, cross-shelf Chl-a fluorescence transects from two cruises, and in situ winds and water column structure from a mooring site. Satellite Chl-a composites segregated by along-front wind direction indicate that surface Chl-a is enhanced at the SBF with southerly winds and suppressed with northerly winds. Northerly winds also result in enhanced Chl-a further offshore (∼25–50 km). Synoptic transects as well as mean hydrographic sections segregated by along-front winds show isopycnals tilted upward for southerly winds. Spring observations from the mooring also suggest that southerly winds destratify the water column and northerly winds restratify, in agreement with Ekman transport interacting with the front. Moreover, changes in water column temperature lag along-front wind forcing by 2–4 days. Our results suggest that oscillations in along-front winds, on timescales typical of atmospheric storms (2–10 days), can significantly modulate the upwelling and Chl-a concentrations at the SBF off Patagonia, revealing the importance of wind-induced upwelling for shelf-slope exchange at shelf-break fronts of western boundary currents.
In the Bering Sea, the nitrogen cycle near Nunivak Island is complicated due to limited nutrient replenishment across this broad shelf, and substantial nitrogen loss through sedimentary processes. While diffusion at the inner front may periodically support new production, the inner shelf in this region is generally described as a regenerative system. This study combines hydrographic surveys with measurements of nitrogen assimilation and benthic fluxes to examine nitrogen cycling on the inner shelf, and connectivity between the middle and inner shelves of the southern and central Bering Sea. Results establish the inner shelf as primarily a regenerative system even in spring, although new production can occur at the inner front. Results also identify key processes that influence nutrient supply to the inner shelf and reveal coupling between the middle shelf nutrient pool and production on the inner shelf.
Surface geostrophic velocity fields derived from satellite altimetry between January 1993 and April 2014 are used to detect and investigate eddies in the North Atlantic between 40°N–55°N and 60°W–10°W. Focus is on a zonal section along 47°N, roughly at the boundary between the subpolar and the subtropical gyres. Sea surface temperature data are used to quantify the temperature anomalies associated with eddies and the respective surface temperature fluxes related to these eddies. Identified eddy pathways across 47°N are related to the mean background velocity from full-depth ship observations carried out on 11 cruises between 2003 and 2014. The analysis is repeated in two model simulations with 1/4° and 1/12° horizontal resolution, respectively, for the period 2002–2013. The analysis reveals almost 37,000 altimeter-derived eddies with a lifetime longer than 1 week in the area. The highest number of eddies is found along the pathway of the North Atlantic Current, roughly following the 4000 m isobath, and on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Time series of temperature fluxes by eddies crossing 47°N reveal that single isolated eddies with large SST signatures contribute ∼25% to the surface temperature flux. Relating the observed eddies to the observed top-to-bottom velocity distribution at 47°N points to the existence of eddy pathways across 47°. The highest-temperature fluxes are linked to the fastest and most pronounced current branches in the western Newfoundland Basin. While there are fewer eddies in both model simulations, the key findings are consistent between the observations and the two model simulations.
The potential impact of intensified westerlies on the Lorenz energy cycle for the Southern Ocean is examined by employing a global eddy-permitting ocean-sea ice model. Two idealized sensitivity experiments are designed for this purpose: one is driven by 1992 forcing with weaker westerlies and the other driven by 1998 forcing with stronger westerlies. The intensified westerlies lead to the most significant increase of about 30% in the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) reservoir, followed by the mean kinetic energy (MKE) reservoir increase (17.9%), eddy available potential energy (EAPE) reservoir increase (8.6%), and mean available potential energy (MAPE) reservoir increase (6.5%). In contrast, the increases in the generations of kinetic energy and available potential energy are quite similar, ranging from 21% for EAPE generation to 26% for MKE generation. There are considerably increased energy transfers from MKE to MAPE (about 75%) and from MAPE to EAPE (about 78%), reflecting greatly enhanced baroclinic instability pathway. The conversion rates are strongly influenced by large topography; in particular, a relatively large energy conversion from EKE to MKE exists in the regions associated with large topography, in contrast to the energy flow from MKE to EKE over the broad Southern Ocean. Under stronger wind forcing, all energy conversions are enhanced, and the increases in the conversion rates from EAPE to EKE and from EKE to MKE are more prominent than the increases from MKE to MAPE and from MAPE to EAPE near large topography.
Mesoscale cyclonic eddies are known to be highly productive. Less well-known are the dynamics and productivity of smaller cyclonic eddies, known as frontal eddies, that form on the landward side of western boundary currents. In this study, we investigate the physical and biogeochemical properties of two contrasting cyclonic eddies in the East Australian Current (EAC). The first ("Murphy"), a mesoscale cyclonic eddy that formed at ∼28°S with a diameter of ∼160 km and high surface chlorophyll-a concentrations, which lived ∼47 days. The second ("Freddy"), a smaller frontal eddy (∼35 km diameter) that formed from a shelf water billow ∼7 days prior to sampling at ∼31.5°S and was advected off the shelf along the EAC front (from ∼200 m to 4000 m of water). Both eddies were at least 1000 m deep with a similar steric height anomaly. We introduce and employ "the method of closest approach" using shipboard ADCP velocities to estimate the eddy centers, which reveals significant tilting through the water column. We estimate rotation rates of 4–10 days and 1–9 days and Rossby numbers 0.25–0.1 and 0.6–0.1, from the surface to 600 m for Murphy and Freddy, respectively. High-resolution altimetry measurements from the SARAL/AltiKA satellite provide estimates of the ageostrophic component of rotation. Our results show that the frontal eddy is significantly more ageostrophic, energetic, and productive than the mesoscale cyclone, despite its small size and short life (∼4 weeks). We suggest that frontal eddies have potential to contribute significantly to the net productivity of the Tasman Sea region.
High horizontal-resolution ( and ) 41-layer global simulations of the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), forced by both atmospheric fields and the astronomical tidal potential, are used to construct global maps of sea surface height (SSH) variability. The HYCOM output is separated into steric and nonsteric and into subtidal, diurnal, semidiurnal, and supertidal frequency bands. The model SSH output is compared to two data sets that offer some geographical coverage and that also cover a wide range of frequencies—a set of 351 tide gauges that measure full SSH and a set of 14 in situ vertical profilers from which steric SSH can be calculated. Three of the global maps are of interest in planning for the upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) two-dimensional swath altimeter mission: (1) maps of the total and (2) nonstationary internal tidal signal (the latter calculated after removing the stationary internal tidal signal via harmonic analysis), with an average variance of and , respectively, for the semidiurnal band, and (3) a map of the steric supertidal contributions, which are dominated by the internal gravity wave continuum, with an average variance of . Stationary internal tides (which are predictable), nonstationary internal tides (which will be harder to predict), and nontidal internal gravity waves (which will be very difficult to predict) may all be important sources of high-frequency "noise" that could mask lower frequency phenomena in SSH measurements made by the SWOT mission.
The salinity and water oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of 29 first-year (FYI) and second-year (SYI) Arctic sea ice cores (total length 32.0 m) from the drifting ice pack north of Svalbard were examined to quantify the contribution of snow to sea ice mass. Five cores (total length 6.4 m) were analyzed for their structural composition, showing variable contribution of 10–30% by granular ice. In these cores, snow had been entrained in 6–28% of the total ice thickness. We found evidence of snow contribution in about three quarters of the sea ice cores, when surface granular layers had very low δ18O values. Snow contributed 7.5–9.7% to sea ice mass balance on average (including also cores with no snow) based on δ18O mass balance calculations. In SYI cores, snow fraction by mass (12.7–16.3%) was much higher than in FYI cores (3.3–4.4%), while the bulk salinity of FYI (4.9) was distinctively higher than for SYI (2.7). We conclude that oxygen isotopes and salinity profiles can give information on the age of the ice and enables distinction between FYI and SYI (or older) ice in the area north of Svalbard.
A 1/12° ocean model configuration of the Amundsen Sea sector is developed to better understand the circulation induced by ice-shelf melt and the impacts on the surrounding ocean and sea ice. Eighteen sensitivity experiments to drag and heat exchange coefficients at the ice shelf/ocean interface are performed. The total melt rate simulated in each cavity is function of the thermal Stanton number, and for a given thermal Stanton number, melt is slightly higher for lower values of the drag coefficient. Sub-ice-shelf melt induces a thermohaline circulation that pumps warm circumpolar deep water into the cavity. The related volume flux into a cavity is 100–500 times stronger than the melt volume flux itself. Ice-shelf melt also induces a coastal barotropic current that contributes 45 ± 12% of the total simulated coastal transport. Due to the presence of warm circumpolar deep waters, the melt-induced inflow typically brings 4–20 times more heat into the cavities than the latent heat required for melt. For currently observed melt rates, approximately 6–31% of the heat that enters a cavity with melting potential is actually used to melt ice shelves. For increasing sub-ice-shelf melt rates, the transport in the cavity becomes stronger, and more heat is pumped from the deep layers to the upper part of the cavity then advected toward the ocean surface in front of the ice shelf. Therefore, more ice-shelf melt induces less sea-ice volume near the ice sheet margins.
In summertime along the U.S. West Coast, the winds exhibit a three-stage cycle spanning ∼12 days. The prevailing upwelling-favorable winds weaken (relax) or reverse off the Pacific Northwest, then reintensify, then weaken off central California. We study the sea-surface temperature (SST) response to these "northern" and "southern" wind relaxations. (1) Satellite data indicate northern wind relaxations result in SST anomalies O(+1°C) extending ∼2000 km offshore. Surface heat flux reanalyses indicate the warm anomaly is mainly from decreased latent cooling. (2) After the winds reintensify, SST becomes anomalously cold along central and southern California. (3) During the southern wind relaxations, the cold SST anomaly persists but the SST warms with time. This warming is not driven by surface heat flux. The latent cooling is reduced, yet unlike during the northern relaxation, this change is canceled by a decrease in solar radiation due to increased cloudiness. In the region south of Point Conception, reduced southward advection of cold water and increased northward advection of warm water by the coastal countercurrent could explain the warming. Reduced Ekman pumping likely contributes to the warming trend during the southern relaxations, and reduced wind-driven entrainment at the base of the mixed layer likely contributes to the warming during both relaxations. Whether the net surface heat flux is the main driver of SST anomalies during wind relaxation depends on the regional response of clouds. Southern wind relaxations follow episodes of enhanced surface cooling, which may contribute to greater cloudiness during southern than northern wind relaxations.
Using simulations, error propagation theory, and measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), we determined the minimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required for ocean color measurements and product uncertainties at different spatial and temporal scales. First, based on typical top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance over the ocean, we evaluate the uncertainties in satellite-derived Rrs in the visible wavelengths (ΔRrs(vis)) due to sensor noise in both the near-infrared (NIR) and the visible bands. While the former induces noise in Rrs(vis) through atmospheric correction, the latter has a direct impact on Rrs(vis). Such estimated uncertainties are compared with inherent ΔRrs(vis) uncertainties from in situ measurements and from the operational atmosphere correction algorithm. The comparison leads to a conclusion that once SNR(NIR) is above 600:1, an SNR(vis) better than 400:1 will not make a significant reduction in product uncertainties at pixel level under typical conditions for a solar zenith angle of 45°. Then, such uncertainties are found to decrease significantly in data products of oceanic waters when the 1 km pixels from individual images are binned to lower spatial resolution (e.g., 4 km) or temporal resolution (e.g., monthly). Although these findings do not suggest that passive ocean color sensors should have SNR(vis) around 400:1, they do support the argument for more trade space in higher spatial and/or spectral resolutions once this minimal 400:1 SNR(vis) requirement is met.
The ocean is a major source of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting agent. The oceanic flux of N2O varies regionally, and in the midlatitude North Atlantic, the production of N2O is poorly constrained. Incubation experiments with 15N-ammonium and 15N-nitrite revealed active N2O production from ammonium oxidation and nitrite reduction in the surface ocean, suggesting the midlatitude North Atlantic could be a net source for N2O, with a flux density of 0.06 µmol-N2O m−2 d−1 in the top 120 m. The peak of N2O production was detected in the upper 100 m, shallower than the depth at which highest rates of ammonium oxidation to nitrite occurred. Oxygen was not depleted in the water column, but its concentration minimum corresponded to highest N2O oversaturation and low in situ N2O production. The apparent N2O yield, i.e., the molar ratio of N2O-N production over nitrite production was 1.7% at the peak N2O production depths in the surface layer and decreased to less than 0.1% at peak ammonium oxidation depths. The majority of N2O production was apparently through "hybrid formation," in which ammonium and nitrite each contribute one nitrogen atom to N2O formation, a process that is proposed to be mediated by ammonia oxidizing archaea.
An idealized eddy-resolving numerical model, with topographic features common to the southern Weddell Sea, is constructed to study mechanisms through which warm deep water enters a wide continental shelf with a trough. The open ocean, represented by a 1700 m deep channel, is connected to a 400 m deep shelf with a continental slope. The shelf is narrow (50 km) in the east but widens to 300 km at the center of the model domain. Over the narrow shelf, the slope front is balanced by wind-driven Ekman downwelling and counteracting eddy overturning, favoring on-shelf transport of warm water in summer scenarios when fresher surface water is present. Over the wide shelf, the Ekman downwelling ceases, and the mesoscale eddies relax the front. Inflow of warm water is sensitive to along-shelf salinity gradients and is most efficient when denser water over the wide shelf favors up-slope eddy transport along isopycnals of the V-shaped slope front. Inflow along the eastern side of the trough cannot penetrate the sill region due to potential vorticity constraints, while along the western trough flank, eddy-induced inflow crosses the sill and reaches the ice front. The warm inflow into the trough is sensitive to the density of the outflowing dense shelf water. For weaker winds, absence of the dense water outflow leads to a reversal of the trough circulation and a strong inflow of warm water, while for stronger winds, baroclinic effects become less important and the inflow is similar to experiments including dense water outflow.