scholarly journals Accelerated flooding along the U.S. East Coast: On the impact of sea‐level rise, tides, storms, the Gulf Stream, and the North Atlantic Oscillations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 362-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Ezer ◽  
Larry P. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

scholarly journals Decadal Shift of NAO-Linked Interannual Sea Level Variability along the U.S. Northeast Coast

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (13) ◽  
pp. 4981-4989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica S. Kenigson ◽  
Weiqing Han ◽  
Balaji Rajagopalan ◽  
Yanto ◽  
Mike Jasinski
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure ◽  
The North ◽  
Decadal Shift ◽  
Nao Index ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Northeast Coast

Recent studies have linked interannual sea level variability and extreme events along the U.S. northeast coast (NEC) to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a natural internal climate mode that prevails in the North Atlantic Ocean. The correlation between the NAO index and coastal sea level north of Cape Hatteras was weak from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, but it has markedly increased since around 1987. The causes for the decadal shift remain unknown. Yet understanding the abrupt change is vital for decadal sea level prediction and is essential for risk management. Here we use a robust method, the Bayesian dynamic linear model (DLM), to explore the nonstationary NAO impact on NEC sea level. The results show that a spatial pattern change of NAO-related winds near the NEC is a major cause of the NAO–sea level relationship shift. A new index using regional sea level pressure is developed that is a significantly better predictor of NEC sea level than is the NAO and is strongly linked to the intensity of westerly winds near the NEC. These results point to the vital importance of monitoring regional changes of wind and sea level pressure patterns, rather than the NAO index alone, to achieve more accurate predictions of sea level change along the NEC.

scholarly journals Last Ice Age Millennial Scale Climate Changes Recorded in Huon Peninsula Corals

Radiocarbon ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Yokoyama ◽  
Tezer M Esat ◽  
Kurt Lambeck ◽  
L Keith Fifield
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Thermohaline Circulation ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Base Line ◽  
The North ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The North Atlantic

Uranium series and radiocarbon ages were measured in corals from the uplifted coral terraces of Huon Peninsula (HP), Papua New Guinea, to provide a calibration for the 14C time scale beyond 30 ka (kilo annum). Improved analytical procedures, and quantitative criteria for sample selection, helped discriminate diagenetically altered samples. The base-line of the calibration curve follows the trend of increasing divergence from calendar ages, as established by previous studies. Superimposed on this trend, four well-defined peaks of excess atmospheric radiocarbon were found ranging in magnitude from 100% to 700%, relative to current levels. They are related to episodes of sea-level rise and reef growth at HP. These peaks appear to be synchronous with Heinrich Events and concentrations of ice-rafted debris found in North Atlantic deep-sea cores. Relative timing of sea-level rise and atmospheric 14C excess imply the following sequence of events: An initial sea-level high is followed by a large increase in atmospheric 14C as the sea-level subsides. Over about 1800 years, the atmospheric radiocarbon drops to below present ambient levels. This cycle bears a close resemblance to ice-calving episodes of Dansgaard-Oeschger and Bond cycles and the slow-down or complete interruption of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. The increases in the atmospheric 14C levels are attributed to the cessation of the North Atlantic circulation.

scholarly journals The Basic Ingredients of the North Atlantic Storm Track. Part II: Sea Surface Temperatures

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (8) ◽  
pp. 1784-1805 ◽  
Author(s):  
David James Brayshaw ◽  
Brian Hoskins ◽  
Michael Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sst Gradient

Abstract The impact of North Atlantic SST patterns on the storm track is investigated using a hierarchy of GCM simulations using idealized (aquaplanet) and “semirealistic” boundary conditions in the atmospheric component (HadAM3) of the third climate configuration of the Met Office Unified Model (HadCM3). This framework enables the mechanisms determining the tropospheric response to North Atlantic SST patterns to be examined, both in isolation and in combination with continental-scale landmasses and orography. In isolation, a “Gulf Stream” SST pattern acts to strengthen the downstream storm track while a “North Atlantic Drift” SST pattern weakens it. These changes are consistent with changes in the extratropical SST gradient and near-surface baroclinicity, and each storm-track response is associated with a consistent change in the tropospheric jet structure. Locally enhanced near-surface horizontal wind convergence is found over the warm side of strengthened SST gradients associated with ascending air and increased precipitation, consistent with previous studies. When the combined SST pattern is introduced into the semirealistic framework (including the “North American” continent and the “Rocky Mountains”), the results suggest that the topographically generated southwest–northeast tilt in the North Atlantic storm track is enhanced. In particular, the Gulf Stream shifts the storm track south in the western Atlantic whereas the strong high-latitude SST gradient in the northeastern Atlantic enhances the storm track there.

Rapid sea-level rise in the North Atlantic Ocean since the first half of the nineteenth century

The Holocene ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 949-965 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Roland Gehrels ◽  
William A. Marshall ◽  
Maria J. Gehrels ◽  
Gudrún Larsen ◽  
Jason R. Kirby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

Why Does Global Warming Weaken the Gulf Stream but Intensify the Kuroshio?

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (21) ◽  
pp. 7437-7451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changlin Chen ◽  
Guihua Wang ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Wei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Surface Warming ◽  
The North ◽  
The Kuroshio ◽  
The North Pacific

ABSTRACT The Kuroshio and Gulf Stream, the subtropical western boundary currents of the North Pacific and North Atlantic, play important roles in meridional heat transport and ocean–atmosphere interaction processes. Using a multimodel ensemble of future projections, we show that a warmer climate intensifies the upper-layer Kuroshio, in contrast to the previously documented slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Our ocean general circulation model experiments show that the sea surface warming, not the wind change, is the dominant forcing that causes the upper-layer Kuroshio to intensify in a warming climate. Forced by the sea surface warming, ocean subduction and advection processes result in a stronger warming to the east of the Kuroshio than to the west, which increases the isopycnal slope across the Kuroshio, and hence intensifies the Kuroshio. In the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream slows down as part of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) response to surface salinity decrease in the high latitudes under global warming. The distinct responses of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio to climate warming are accompanied by different regional patterns of sea level rise. While the sea level rise accelerates along the northeastern U.S. coast as the AMOC weakens, it remains close to the global mean rate along the East Asian coast as the intensifying Kuroshio is associated with the enhanced sea level rise offshore in the North Pacific subtropical gyre.

scholarly journals Attribution of the Extreme U.S. East Coast Snowstorm Activity of 2010

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 3771-3791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yehui Chang ◽  
Siegfried Schubert ◽  
Max Suarez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Storm Activity ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Sst Anomalies

This study examines the cause of the extreme snowstorm activity along the U.S. East Coast during the winter of 2009/10 with a focus on the role of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. The study employs the Goddard Earth Observing System, version 5 (GEOS-5) atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) run at high resolution and forced with specified observed or idealized SST. Comparisons are made with the winter of 1999/2000, a period that is characterized by SST anomalies that are largely of opposite sign. When forced with observed SSTs, the AGCM response consists of a band of enhanced storminess extending from the central subtropical North Pacific, across the southern United States, across the North Atlantic, and across southern Eurasia, with reduced storminess to the north of these regions. Positive precipitation and cold temperature anomalies occur over the eastern United States, reflecting a propensity for enhanced snowstorm activity. Additional idealized SST experiments show that the anomalies over the United States are, to a large extent, driven by the ENSO-related Pacific SST. The North Atlantic SSTs contribute to the cooler temperatures along the East Coast of the United States, while the Indian Ocean SSTs act primarily to warm the central part of the country. It is further shown that the observed upper-tropospheric height anomalies have a large noise (unforced) component over the Northern Hemisphere, represented over the North Atlantic by a North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)-like structure. The signal-to-noise ratios of the temperature and precipitation fields nevertheless indicate a potential for predicting the unusual storm activity along the U.S. East Coast several months in advance.

scholarly journals Spatial Variability of Sea Level Rise in Twenty-First Century Projections

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (17) ◽  
pp. 4585-4607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Yin ◽  
Stephen M. Griffies ◽  
Ronald J. Stouffer
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
First Century ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Twenty First Century

Abstract A set of state-of-the-science climate models are used to investigate global sea level rise (SLR) patterns induced by ocean dynamics in twenty-first-century climate projections. The identified robust features include bipolar and bihemisphere seesaws in the basin-wide SLR, dipole patterns in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and a beltlike pattern in the Southern Ocean. The physical and dynamical mechanisms that cause these patterns are investigated in detail using version 2.1 of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) Coupled Model (CM2.1). Under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1B scenario, the steric sea level changes relative to the global mean (the local part) in different ocean basins are attributed to differential heating and salinity changes of various ocean layers and associated physical processes. As a result of these changes, water tends to move from the ocean interior to continental shelves. In the North Atlantic, sea level rises north of the Gulf Stream but falls to the south. The dipole pattern is induced by a weakening of the meridional overturning circulation. This weakening leads to a local steric SLR east of North America, which drives more waters toward the shelf, directly impacting northeastern North America. An opposite dipole occurs in the North Pacific. The dynamic SLR east of Japan is linked to a strong steric effect in the upper ocean and a poleward expansion of the subtropical gyre. In the Southern Ocean, the beltlike pattern is dominated by the baroclinic process during the twenty-first century, while the barotropic response of sea level to wind stress anomalies is significantly delayed.

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