Salinity Variations in the Southern California Current*

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1421-1436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Schneider ◽  
Emanuele Di Lorenzo ◽  
Pearn P. Niiler
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
Southern California Bight ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
California Current System ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Salinity Variations

Abstract Hydrographic observations southwestward of the Southern California Bight in the period 1937–99 show that temperature and salinity variations have very different interannual variability. Temperature varies within and above the thermocline and is correlated with climate indices of El Niño, the Pacific decadal oscillation, and local upwelling. Salinity variability is largest in the surface layers of the offshore salinity minimum and is characterized by decadal-time-scale changes. The salinity anomalies are independent of temperature, of heave of the pycnocline, and of the climate indices. Calculations demonstrate that long-shore anomalous geostrophic advection of the mean salinity gradient accumulates along the mean southward trajectory along the California Current and produces the observed salinity variations. The flow anomalies for this advective process are independent of large-scale climate indices. It is hypothesized that low-frequency variability of the California Current system results from unresolved, small-scale atmospheric forcing or from the ocean mesoscale upstream of the Southern California Bight.

scholarly journals Eddy–Wind Interaction in the California Current System: Dynamics and Impacts

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyodae Seo ◽  
Arthur J. Miller ◽  
Joel R. Norris
Keyword(s):  
Wind Stress ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
Surface Current ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Propagation Time ◽  
Ekman Pumping ◽  
Induced Current ◽  
California Current System ◽  
The Mean

AbstractThe summertime California Current System (CCS) is characterized by energetic mesoscale eddies, whose sea surface temperature (SST) and surface current can significantly modify the wind stress and Ekman pumping. Relative importance of the eddy–wind interactions via SST and surface current in the CCS is examined using a high-resolution (7 km) regional coupled model with a novel coupling approach to isolate the small-scale air–sea coupling by SST and surface current. Results show that when the eddy-induced surface current is allowed to modify the wind stress, the spatially averaged surface eddy kinetic energy (EKE) is reduced by 42%, and this is primarily due to enhanced surface eddy drag and reduced wind energy transfer. In contrast, the eddy-induced SST–wind coupling has no significant impact on the EKE. Furthermore, eddy-induced SST and surface current modify the Ekman pumping via their crosswind SST gradient and surface vorticity gradient, respectively. The resultant magnitudes of the Ekman pumping velocity are comparable, but the implied feedback effects on the eddy statistics are different. The surface current-induced Ekman pumping mainly attenuates the amplitude of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, acting to reduce the eddy activity, while the SST-induced Ekman pumping primarily affects the propagation. Time mean–rectified change in SST is determined by the altered offshore temperature advection by the mean and eddy currents, but the magnitude of the mean SST change is greater with the eddy-induced current effect. The demonstrated remarkably strong dynamical response in the CCS system to the eddy-induced current–wind coupling indicates that eddy-induced current should play an important role in the regional coupled ocean–atmosphere system.

Volume and Heat Budgets in the Coastal California Current System: Means, Annual Cycles, and Interannual Anomalies of 2014–16

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1435-1453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine D. Zaba ◽  
Daniel L. Rudnick ◽  
Bruce D. Cornuelle ◽  
Ganesh Gopalakrishnan ◽  
Matthew R. Mazloff
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Layer ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
Southern California Bight ◽  
Heat Advection ◽  
California Current System ◽  
Annual Cycles ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Heat Budgets

AbstractThe data-assimilating California State Estimate (CASE) enables the explicit evaluation of spatiotemporally varying volume and heat budgets in the coastal California Current System (CCS). An analysis of over 10 years of CASE model output (2007–17) diagnoses the physical drivers of the CCS mean state, annual cycles, and the 2014–16 temperature anomalies associated with a marine heat wave and an El Niño event. The largest terms in the mean mixed layer (from−50 to 0 m) volume budgets are upward vertical transport at the coast and offshore-flowing ageostrophic Ekman transport at the surface, the two branches of the coastal upwelling overturning cell. Contributions from onshore geostrophic flow in the Southern California Bight and alongshore geostrophic convergence in the central CCS balance the mean volume budgets. The depth-dependent annual cycle of vertical velocity exhibits the strongest upward velocity between −40- and −30-m depth in April. Interannual volume budgets show that over 50% of the 2013.5–16.5 time period experienced downwelling anomalies, which were balanced predominantly by alongshore transport convergence and, less often, by onshore transport anomalies. Mixed layer temperature anomalies persisted for the entirety of 2014–16, reaching a maximum of +3° in October 2015. The mixed layer heat budget shows that intermittent high air–sea heat flux anomalies and alongshore and vertical heat advection anomalies all contributed to warming during 2014–16. A subsurface (from −210 to −100 m) heat budget reveals that in September 2015 anomalous poleward heat advection into the Southern California Bight by the California Undercurrent caused deeper warming during the 2015/16 El Niño.

scholarly journals The Warming of the California Current System: Dynamics and Ecosystem Implications

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Di Lorenzo ◽  
Arthur J. Miller ◽  
Niklas Schneider ◽  
James C. McWilliams
Keyword(s):  
Southern California ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
California Current System ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
The Mean

Abstract Long-term changes in the observed temperature and salinity along the southern California coast are studied using a four-dimensional space–time analysis of the 52-yr (1949–2000) California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) hydrography combined with a sensitivity analysis of an eddy-permitting primitive equation ocean model under various forcing scenarios. An overall warming trend of 1.3°C in the ocean surface, a deepening in the depth of the mean thermocline (18 m), and increased stratification between 1950 and 1999 are found to be primarily forced by large-scale decadal fluctuations in surface heat fluxes combined with horizontal advection by the mean currents. After 1998 the surface heat fluxes suggest the beginning of a period of cooling, consistent with colder observed ocean temperatures. Salinity changes are decoupled from temperature and appear to be controlled locally in the coastal ocean by horizontal advection by anomalous currents. A cooling trend of –0.5°C in SST is driven in the ocean model by the 50-yr NCEP wind reanalysis, which contains a positive trend in upwelling-favorable winds along the southern California coast. A net warming trend of +1°C in SST occurs, however, when the effects of observed surface heat fluxes are included as forcing functions in the model. Within 50–100 km of the coast, the ocean model simulations show that increased stratification/deepening of the thermocline associated with the warming reduces the efficiency of coastal upwelling in advecting subsurface waters to the ocean surface, counteracting any effects of the increased strength of the upwelling winds. Such a reduction in upwelling efficiency leads in the model to a freshening of surface coastal waters. Because salinity and nutrients at the coast have similar distributions this must reflect a reduction of the nutrient supply at the coast, which is manifestly important in explaining the observed decline in zooplankton concentration. The increased winds also drive an intensification of the mean currents of the southern California Current System (SCCS). Model mesoscale eddy variance significantly increases in recent decades in response to both the stronger upwelling winds and the warmer upper-ocean temperatures, suggesting that the stability properties of the SCCS have also changed.

scholarly journals Reconstruction of Diffusion Coefficients and Power Exponents from Single Lagrangian Trajectories

Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Leonid M. Ivanov ◽  
Collins A. Collins ◽  
Tetyana Margolina
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Diffusion Coefficients ◽  
Current System ◽  
Mean Square Displacement ◽  
California Current ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
California Current System ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Non Gaussian

Using discrete wavelets, a novel technique is developed to estimate turbulent diffusion coefficients and power exponents from single Lagrangian particle trajectories. The technique differs from the classical approach (Davis (1991)’s technique) because averaging over a statistical ensemble of the mean square displacement (<X2>) is replaced by averaging along a single Lagrangian trajectory X(t) = {X(t), Y(t)}. Metzler et al. (2014) have demonstrated that for an ergodic (for example, normal diffusion) flow, the mean square displacement is <X2> = limT→∞τX2(T,s), where τX2 (T, s) = 1/(T − s) ∫0T−s(X(t+Δt) − X(t))2 dt, T and s are observational and lag times but for weak non-ergodic (such as super-diffusion and sub-diffusion) flows <X2> = limT→∞≪τX2(T,s)≫, where ≪…≫ is some additional averaging. Numerical calculations for surface drifters in the Black Sea and isobaric RAFOS floats deployed at mid depths in the California Current system demonstrated that the reconstructed diffusion coefficients were smaller than those calculated by Davis (1991)’s technique. This difference is caused by the choice of the Lagrangian mean. The technique proposed here is applied to the analysis of Lagrangian motions in the Black Sea (horizontal diffusion coefficients varied from 105 to 106 cm2/s) and for the sub-diffusion of two RAFOS floats in the California Current system where power exponents varied from 0.65 to 0.72. RAFOS float motions were found to be strongly non-ergodic and non-Gaussian.

scholarly journals Eddy properties in the Southern California Current System

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (7) ◽  
pp. 761-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Chenillat ◽  
Peter J. S. Franks ◽  
Xavier Capet ◽  
Pascal Rivière ◽  
Nicolas Grima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern California ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
California Current System

scholarly journals Biogeochemical Anomalies at Two Southern California Current System Moorings During the 2014–2016 Warm Anomaly‐El Niño Sequence

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (10) ◽  
pp. 6886-6903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Lilly ◽  
Uwe Send ◽  
Matthias Lankhorst ◽  
Todd R. Martz ◽  
Richard A. Feely ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Southern California ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
California Current System ◽  
Warm Anomaly

scholarly journals Can we use sea surface temperature and productivity proxy records to reconstruct Ekman upwelling?

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1985-1998
Author(s):  
Anson Cheung ◽  
Baylor Fox-Kemper ◽  
Timothy Herbert
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current System ◽  
California Current ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
California Current System ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Multiple Variables ◽  
Ekman Upwelling

Abstract. Marine sediments have greatly improved our understanding of the climate system, but their interpretation often assumes that certain climate mechanisms operate consistently over all timescales of interest and that variability at one or a few sample sites is representative of an oceanographic province. In this study, we test these assumptions using modern observations in an idealized manner mimicking paleo-reconstruction to investigate whether sea surface temperature and productivity proxy records in the Southern California Current System can be used to reconstruct Ekman upwelling. The method uses extended empirical orthogonal function (EEOF) analysis of the covariation of alongshore wind stress, chlorophyll, and sea surface temperature as measured by satellites from 2002 to 2009. We find that EEOF1 does not reflect an Ekman upwelling pattern but instead much broader California Current processes. EEOF2 and 3 reflect upwelling patterns, but these patterns are timescale dependent and regional. Thus, the skill of using one site to reconstruct the large-scale dominant patterns is spatially dependent. Lastly, we show that using multiple sites and/or multiple variables generally improves field reconstruction. These results together suggest that caution is needed when attempting to extrapolate mechanisms that may be important on seasonal timescales (e.g., Ekman upwelling) to deeper time but also the advantage of having multiple proxy records.

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