Major role of the equatorial current system in setting oxygen levels in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean: A high-resolution model study

Abstract. Most of oceanographic operational centers use three-dimensional data assimilation schemes to produce reanalyses. We investigate here the benefits of a smoother, i.e. a four-dimensional formulation of statistical assimilation. A square-root sequential smoother is implemented with a tropical Atlantic Ocean circulation model. A simple twin experiment is performed to investigate its benefits, compared to its corresponding filter. Despite model's non-linearities and the various approximations used for its implementation, the smoother leads to a better estimation of the ocean state, both on statistical (i.e. mean error level) and dynamical points of view, as expected from linear theory. Smoothed states are more in phase with the dynamics of the reference state, an aspect that is nicely illustrated with the chaotic dynamics of the North Brazil Current rings. We also show that the smoother efficiency is strongly related to the filter configuration. One of the main obstacles to implement the smoother is then to accurately estimate the error covariances of the filter. Considering this, benefits of the smoother are also investigated with a configuration close to situations that can be managed by operational center systems, where covariances matrices are fixed (optimal interpolation). We define here a simplified smoother scheme, called half-fixed basis smoother, that could be implemented with current reanalysis schemes. Its main assumption is to neglect the propagation of the error covariances matrix, what leads to strongly reduce the cost of assimilation. Results illustrate the ability of this smoother to provide a solution more consistent with the dynamics, compared to the filter. The smoother is also able to produce analyses independently of the observation frequency, so the smoothed solution appears more continuous in time, especially in case of a low frenquency observation network.

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Riverine influence on the tropical Atlantic Ocean biogeochemistry

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-10-6357-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 6357-6373 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

L. C. da Cunha ◽

E. T. Buitenhuis

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Ocean ◽

Coastal Ocean ◽

Open Ocean ◽

N Fixation ◽

South American ◽

Tropical Atlantic ◽

Co2 Fluxes ◽

Tropical Atlantic Ocean ◽

Ocean Biogeochemistry

Abstract. We assess the role of riverine inputs of N, Si, Fe, organic and inorganic C in the tropical Atlantic Ocean using a global ocean biogeochemistry model. We use a standard model scenario and three sensitivity tests to investigate the role of total river nutrient and carbon inputs, as well as the western (South American) and eastern (African) river inputs on the tropical Atlantic Ocean biogeochemistry, between 20° S–20° N and 70° W–20° E. Increased nutrient availability from river inputs in this area (compared to a sensitivity scenario without river nutrient inputs, NO_RIVER) leads to an increase in primary production (PP) and export production (EP), mainly in the coastal ocean area (modeled ocean area with bathymetry <200 m). Model results suggest an enhanced N-fixation by diazotrophs on the tropical Atlantic mainly in open ocean areas. The increased rate of N-fixation in the TODAY scenario is proportional to the increase in PP and EP relative to the NO_RIVER scenario, and may support up to 14% of the coastal ocean export production. Inputs from South American rivers have an impact in coastal PP and EP two times higher than those from African rivers. On the other hand, results suggest that the contribution of African and South American rivers to the total increase in open ocean PP and EP is similar. Considering the amount of delivered nutrients (2–3 times less nutrients and carbon inputs by African rivers) one concludes that African riverine inputs may have a larger impact on the whole tropical Atlantic Ocean biogeochemistry. This is probably due to a combination of nutrient trapping in upwelling areas off the large rivers' outflows and shallow mixed layers in the eastern tropical Atlantic, concomitantly to the differences in delivered nutrient ratios leading to alleviation in limitation conditions, mainly for diatoms. When river inputs are added to the model, we estimate a modest decrease in open ocean sea-air CO2 fluxes (−5.2 Tg C a−1) and an increase in coastal ocean CO2 fluxes, mainly provoked by the remineralization of riverine organic matter delivered by the South American rivers.

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