scholarly journals Impact of global cooling on Early Cretaceous high pCO2 world during the Weissert Event

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liyenne Cavalheiro ◽  
Thomas Wagner ◽  
Sebastian Steinig ◽  
Cinzia Bottini ◽  
Wolf Dummann ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Weissert Event ~133 million years ago marked a profound global cooling that punctuated the Early Cretaceous greenhouse. We present modelling, high-resolution bulk organic carbon isotopes and chronostratigraphically calibrated sea surface temperature (SSTs) based on an organic paleothermometer (the TEX86 proxy), which capture the Weissert Event in the semi-enclosed Weddell Sea basin, offshore Antarctica (paleolatitude ~54 °S; paleowater depth ~500 meters). We document a ~3–4 °C drop in SST coinciding with the Weissert cold end, and converge the Weddell Sea data, climate simulations and available worldwide multi-proxy based temperature data towards one unifying solution providing a best-fit between all lines of evidence. The outcome confirms a 3.0 °C ( ±1.7 °C) global mean surface cooling across the Weissert Event, which translates into a ~40% drop in atmospheric pCO2 over a period of ~700 thousand years. Consistent with geologic evidence, this pCO2 drop favoured the potential build-up of local polar ice.

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1339-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Jenkyns ◽  
L. Schouten-Huibers ◽  
S. Schouten ◽  
J. S. Sinninghe Damsté

Abstract. Although a division of the Phanerozoic climatic modes of the Earth into "greenhouse" and "icehouse" phases is widely accepted, whether or not polar ice developed during the relatively warm Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods is still under debate. In particular, there is a range of isotopic and biotic evidence that favours the concept of discrete "cold snaps", marked particularly by migration of certain biota towards lower latitudes. Extension of the use of the palaeotemperature proxy TEX86 back to the middle Jurassic indicates that relatively warm sea-surface conditions (26–30 °C) existed from this interval (~160 Ma) to the Early Cretaceous (~115 Ma) in the Southern Ocean. The Jurassic and Cretaceous "cold snaps" represent falls of only a few degrees. Belemnite δ18O data give palaeotemperatures that are consistently lower by ~14 °C than does TEX86 and these molluscs likely record conditions below the thermocline. Such long-term warm climatic conditions would only be compatible with the existence of continental ice if appreciable areas of high altitude existed on Antarctica, and/or in other polar regions, during the Mesozoic Era.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 688
Author(s):  
Soline Bielli ◽  
Christelle Barthe ◽  
Olivier Bousquet ◽  
Pierre Tulet ◽  
Joris Pianezze

A set of numerical simulations is relied upon to evaluate the impact of air-sea interactions on the behaviour of tropical cyclone (TC) Bejisa (2014), using various configurations of the coupled ocean-atmosphere numerical system Meso-NH-NEMO. Uncoupled (SST constant) as well as 1D (use of a 1D ocean mixed layer) and 3D (full 3D ocean) coupled experiments are conducted to evaluate the impact of the oceanic response and dynamic processes, with emphasis on the simulated structure and intensity of TC Bejisa. Although the three experiments are shown to properly capture the track of the tropical cyclone, the intensity and the spatial distribution of the sea surface cooling show strong differences from one coupled experiment to another. In the 1D experiment, sea surface cooling (∼1 ∘C) is reduced by a factor 2 with respect to observations and appears restricted to the depth of the ocean mixed layer. Cooling is maximized along the right-hand side of the TC track, in apparent disagreement with satellite-derived sea surface temperature observations. In the 3D experiment, surface cooling of up to 2.5 ∘C is simulated along the left hand side of the TC track, which shows more consistency with observations both in terms of intensity and spatial structure. In-depth cooling is also shown to extend to a much deeper depth, with a secondary maximum of nearly 1.5 ∘C simulated near 250 m. With respect to the uncoupled experiment, heat fluxes are reduced from about 20% in both 1D and 3D coupling configurations. The tropical cyclone intensity in terms of occurrence of 10-m TC wind is globally reduced in both cases by about 10%. 3D-coupling tends to asymmetrize winds aloft with little impact on intensity but rather a modification of the secondary circulation, resulting in a slight change in structure.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 6049-6062 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Yue ◽  
H. Liao ◽  
H. J. Wang ◽  
S. L. Li ◽  
J. P. Tang

Abstract. Mineral dust aerosol can be transported over the nearby oceans and influence the energy balance at the sea surface. The role of dust-induced sea surface temperature (SST) responses in simulations of the climatic effect of dust is examined by using a general circulation model with online simulation of mineral dust and a coupled mixed-layer ocean model. Both the longwave and shortwave radiative effects of mineral dust aerosol are considered in climate simulations. The SST responses are found to be very influential on simulated dust-induced climate change, especially when climate simulations consider the two-way dust-climate coupling to account for the feedbacks. With prescribed SSTs and dust concentrations, we obtain an increase of 0.02 K in the global and annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) in response to dust radiative effects. In contrast, when SSTs are allowed to respond to radiative forcing of dust in the presence of the dust cycle-climate interactions, we obtain a global and annual mean cooling of 0.09 K in SAT by dust. The extra cooling simulated with the SST responses can be attributed to the following two factors: (1) The negative net (shortwave plus longwave) radiative forcing of dust at the surface reduces SST, which decreases latent heat fluxes and upward transport of water vapor, resulting in less warming in the atmosphere; (2) The positive feedback between SST responses and dust cycle. The dust-induced reductions in SST lead to reductions in precipitation (or wet deposition of dust) and hence increase the global burden of small dust particles. These small particles have strong scattering effects, which enhance the dust cooling at the surface and further reduce SSTs.


Author(s):  
Youtong Zheng ◽  
Haipeng Zhang ◽  
Daniel Rosenfeld ◽  
Seoung-Soo Lee ◽  
Tianning Su ◽  
...  

AbstractWe explore the decoupling physics of a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer (STBL) moving over cooler water, a situation mimicking the warm air advection (WADV). We simulate an initially well-mixed STBL over a doubly periodic domain with the sea surface temperature decreasing linearly over time using the System for Atmospheric Modeling large-eddy model. Due to the surface cooling, the STBL becomes increasingly stably stratified, manifested as a near-surface temperature inversion topped by a well-mixed cloud-containing layer. Unlike the stably stratified STBL in cold air advection (CADV) that is characterized by cumulus coupling, the stratocumulus deck in the WADV is unambiguously decoupled from the sea surface, manifested as weakly negative buoyancy flux throughout the sub-cloud layer. Without the influxes of buoyancy from the surface, the convective circulation in the well-mixed cloud-containing layer is driven by cloud-top radiative cooling. In such a regime, the downdrafts propel the circulation, in contrast to that in CADV regime for which the cumulus updrafts play a more determinant role. Such a contrast in convection regime explains the difference in many aspects of the STBLs including the entrainment rate, cloud homogeneity, vertical exchanges of heat and moisture, and lifetime of the stratocumulus deck, with the last being subject to a more thorough investigation in part 2. Finally, we investigate under what conditions a secondary stratus near the surface (or fog) can form in the WADV. We found that weaker subsidence favors the formation of fog whereas a more rapid surface cooling rate doesn’t.


1986 ◽  
Vol 91 (C4) ◽  
pp. 5031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lothar Stramma ◽  
Peter Cornillon ◽  
James F. Price

Author(s):  
Lianxin Zhang ◽  
Xuefeng Zhang ◽  
William Perrie ◽  
Changlong Guan ◽  
Bo Dan ◽  
...  

AbstractA coupled ocean-wave-sea spray model system is used to investigate the impacts of sea spray and sea surface roughness on the response of the upper ocean to the passage of the super typhoon Haitang. Sea spray mediated heat and momentum fluxes are derived from an improved version of Fairall’s heat fluxes formulation (Zhang et al., 2017) and Andreas’s sea spray-mediated momentum flux models. For winds ranging from low to extremely high speeds, a new parameterization scheme for the sea surface roughness is developed, in which the effects of wave state and sea spray are introduced. In this formulation, the drag coefficient has minimal values over the right quadrant of the typhoon track, along which the typhoon-generated waves are longer, smoother, and older, compared to other quadrants. Using traditional interfacial air-sea turbulent (sensible, latent, and momentum) fluxes, the sea surface cooling response to typhoon Haitang is overestimated by 1 °C, which can be compensated by the effects of sea spray and ocean waves on the right side of the storm. Inclusion of sea spray-mediated turbulent fluxes and sea surface roughness, modulated by ocean waves, gives enhanced cooling along the left edges of the cooling area by 0.2 °C, consistent with the upper ocean temperature observations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Hirahara ◽  
Masayoshi Ishii ◽  
Yoshikazu Fukuda

Abstract A new sea surface temperature (SST) analysis on a centennial time scale is presented. In this analysis, a daily SST field is constructed as a sum of a trend, interannual variations, and daily changes, using in situ SST and sea ice concentration observations. All SST values are accompanied with theory-based analysis errors as a measure of reliability. An improved equation is introduced to represent the ice–SST relationship, which is used to produce SST data from observed sea ice concentrations. Prior to the analysis, biases of individual SST measurement types are estimated for a homogenized long-term time series of global mean SST. Because metadata necessary for the bias correction are unavailable for many historical observational reports, the biases are determined so as to ensure consistency among existing SST and nighttime air temperature observations. The global mean SSTs with bias-corrected observations are in agreement with those of a previously published study, which adopted a different approach. Satellite observations are newly introduced for the purpose of reconstruction of SST variability over data-sparse regions. Moreover, uncertainty in areal means of the present and previous SST analyses is investigated using the theoretical analysis errors and estimated sampling errors. The result confirms the advantages of the present analysis, and it is helpful in understanding the reliability of SST for a specific area and time period.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Francesco Ragone ◽  
Andrea Meli ◽  
Anna Napoli ◽  
Claudia Pasquero

The Western Mediterranean Sea is often subject to intense winds, especially during the winter season. Intense winds induce surface cooling associated with anomalous ocean heat loss, upwelling and diapycnal mixing. In this study we investigate the overall impact of extreme wind events on the upper ocean in the Western Mediterranean sea using sea surface temperature and sea surface height observational data products over the period 1993–2014. We show that the largest thermal anomaly is observed a couple of days after the intense wind event and that it is dependent on the wind intensity. During winter, when deep water formation occurs, it persists for over a month. During summer, when the thermocline is very shallow, the recovery time scale is typically less than 10 days. The sea surface height signal reaches a minimum in correspondence to the intense wind, and normal conditions recover in about six weeks. Unlike for intense winds in the tropics associated to the passage of tropical cyclones, no long term sea surface height anomaly is observed, indicating that the water column heat content is not significantly modified. The observed recovery times suggest instead the possibility of feedbacks on the dynamics of intense cyclones at sub-monthly time scales.


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