scholarly journals On the changes in the sea surface temperature in the benguela upwelling region. Part 2: the long-term tendencies

Author(s):  
A. B. Polonsky ◽  
A. N. Serebrennikov

The paper examines the issue on the long-term trends in the sea surface temperature (SST) in the Benguela upwelling zone and their causes using the daily SST satellite data for 1985–2017’s and the daily near-surface wind for 1988–2017”s. It is shown that in the Benguela upwelling region, there is a significant intensification of driving winds in the last 20 yrs. This is accompanied by a decrease of the thermal upwelling index (taking into account the sign of the index or an increase of its absolute values) in the southern part of the Benguela upwelling, but practically does not influence this indicator in its northern part. The likely reason for this difference is the change in the wind field structure, as a result of which there are opposite trends in the magnitude of the vorticity of the tangential wind stress in different parts of the Benguela upwelling. In the southern part of the Benguela upwelling, both the Ekman’s upwelling and the vertical velocities due to the vorticity of the driving wind intensify, while in the northern part the corresponding trends have the opposite signs. This leads to a partial compensation of these two effects in the northern part of the Benguela upwelling. The reason for the change in the wind field structure is the displacement of the center of the Subtropical High to the south-east and the concomitant reversal of the near-surface wind vector in the coastal zone.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3230
Author(s):  
Anindya Wirasatriya ◽  
Kohtaro Hosoda ◽  
Joga Dharma Setiawan ◽  
R. Dwi Susanto

Near-surface diurnal warming is an important process in the climate system, driving exchanges of water vapor and heat between the ocean and the atmosphere. The occurrence of the hot event (HE) is associated with the high diurnal sea surface temperature amplitude (δSST), which is defined as the difference between daily maximum and minimum sea surface temperature (SST). However, previous studies still show some inconsistency for the area of HE occurrence and high δSST. The present study produces global δSST data based on the SST, sea surface wind data derived from microwave radiometers, and solar radiation data obtained from visible/infrared radiometers. The value of δSSTs are estimated and validated over tropical oceans and then used for investigating HE in the western equatorial Pacific. A three-way error analysis was conducted using in situ mooring buoy arrays and geostationary SST measurements by the Himawari-8 and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). The standard deviation error of daily and 10-day validation is around 0.3 °C and 0.14–0.19 °C, respectively. Our case study in the western Pacific (from 110°E to 150°W) shows that the area of HE occurrence coincided well with the area of high δSST. Climatological analysis shows that the collocated area between high occurrence rate of HE and high δSST, which coincides with the western Pacific warm pool region in all seasons. Thus, this study provides more persuasive evidence of the relation between HE occurrence and high δSST.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley M. Merritt-Takeuchi ◽  
Sen Chiao

Abstract This study investigates phytoplankton blooms following the passage of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. The variables of sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll (Chl-a), precipitation, and storm surface winds were monitored for two case studies, Typhoon Xangsane (2006) and Hurricane Earl (2010). Strong near-surface wind from tropical cyclones creates internal friction, which causes deep nutrient enriched waters to displace from the bottom of the ocean floor up toward the surface. In return, the abundance of upwelled nutrients near the surface provides an ideal environment for the growth of biological substances such as chlorophyll and phytoplankton. The inverse correlation coefficients of SST and Chl-a for this study are −0.67 and −0.26 for Xangsane and Earl, respectively. This suggests that, regardless of ocean basin, changing sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentrations can be correlated to various characteristics of tropical cyclones including precipitation and surface wind, which in combination results in an increase of phytoplankton.


Ocean Science ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. I. Shapiro ◽  
D. L. Aleynik ◽  
L. D. Mee

Abstract. There is growing understanding that recent deterioration of the Black Sea ecosystem was partly due to changes in the marine physical environment. This study uses high resolution 0.25° climatology to analyze sea surface temperature variability over the 20th century in two contrasting regions of the sea. Results show that the deep Black Sea was cooling during the first three quarters of the century and was warming in the last 15–20 years; on aggregate there was a statistically significant cooling trend. The SST variability over the Western shelf was more volatile and it does not show statistically significant trends. The cooling of the deep Black Sea is at variance with the general trend in the North Atlantic and may be related to the decrease of westerly winds over the Black Sea, and a greater influence of the Siberian anticyclone. The timing of the changeover from cooling to warming coincides with the regime shift in the Black Sea ecosystem.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-399
Author(s):  
T. I. Tarkhova ◽  
M. S. Permyakov ◽  
E. Yu. Potalova ◽  
V. I. Semykin

Abstract. Sea surface wind perturbations over sea surface temperature (SST) cold anomalies over the Kashevarov Bank (KB) of the Okhotsk Sea are analyzed using satellite (AMSR-E and QuikSCAT) data during the summer-autumn period of 2006–2009. It is shown, that frequency of cases of wind speed decreasing over a cold spot in August–September reaches up to 67%. In the cold spot center SST cold anomalies reached 10.5 °C and wind speed lowered down to ~7 m s−1 relative its value on the periphery. The wind difference between a periphery and a centre of the cold spot is proportional to SST difference with the correlations 0.5 for daily satellite passes data, 0.66 for 3-day mean data and 0.9 for monthly ones. For all types of data the coefficient of proportionality consists of ~0.3 m s−1 on 1 °C.


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