scholarly journals Coccolithophore surface distributions in the North Atlantic and their modulation of the air-sea flux of CO<sub>2</sub> from 10 years of satellite Earth observation data

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 2699-2709 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Shutler ◽  
P. E. Land ◽  
C. W. Brown ◽  
H. S. Findlay ◽  
C. J. Donlon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Co2 Flux ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Earth Observation Data

Abstract. Coccolithophores are the primary oceanic phytoplankton responsible for the production of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). These climatically important plankton play a key role in the oceanic carbon cycle as a major contributor of carbon to the open ocean carbonate pump (~50%) and their calcification can affect the atmosphere-to-ocean (air-sea) uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) through increasing the seawater partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). Here we document variations in the areal extent of surface blooms of the globally important coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, in the North Atlantic over a 10-year period (1998–2007), using Earth observation data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). We calculate the annual mean sea surface areal coverage of E. huxleyi in the North Atlantic to be 474 000 ± 104 000 km2, which results in a net CaCO3 carbon (CaCO3-C) production of 0.14–1.71 Tg CaCO3-C per year. However, this surface coverage (and, thus, net production) can fluctuate inter-annually by −54/+8% about the mean value and is strongly correlated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate oscillation index (r=0.75, p<0.02). Our analysis evaluates the spatial extent over which the E. huxleyi blooms in the North Atlantic can increase the pCO2 and, thus, decrease the localised air-sea flux of atmospheric CO2. In regions where the blooms are prevalent, the average reduction in the monthly air-sea CO2 flux can reach 55%. The maximum reduction of the monthly air-sea CO2 flux in the time series is 155%. This work suggests that the high variability, frequency and distribution of these calcifying plankton and their impact on pCO2 should be considered if we are to fully understand the variability of the North Atlantic air-to-sea flux of CO2. We estimate that these blooms can reduce the annual N. Atlantic net sink atmospheric CO2 by between 3–28%.

scholarly journals Coccolithophore surface distributions in the North Atlantic and their modulation of the air-sea flux of CO<sub>2</sub> from 10 years of satellite Earth observation data

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 5823-5848 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Shutler ◽  
P. E. Land ◽  
C. W. Brown ◽  
H. S. Findlay ◽  
C. J. Donlon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Co2 Sink ◽  
Earth Observation Data

Abstract. Coccolithophores are the primary oceanic phytoplankton responsible for the production of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). These climatically important plankton play a key role in the oceanic carbon cycle as a major contributor of carbon to the open ocean carbonate pump (~50%) and their formation can affect the atmosphere-to-ocean (air-sea) uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) through increasing the seawater partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). Here we document variations in the areal extent of surface blooms of the globally important coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, in the North Atlantic over a 10-year period (1998–2007), using Earth observation data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field of view Sensor (SeaWiFS). We calculate the annual mean surface areal coverage of E. huxleyi in the North Atlantic to be 474 000 ± 119 000 km2 yr−1, which results in a net CaCO3 production of 0.62 ± 0.15 Tg CaCO3 carbon per year. However, this surface coverage and net production can fluctuate by −54/+81% about these mean values and are strongly correlated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate oscillation index (r = 0.75, p < 0.02). Our analysis evaluates the spatial extent over which the E. huxleyi blooms in the North Atlantic can increase the pCO2 and thus decrease the localised sink of atmospheric CO2. In regions where the blooms are prevalent, the average reduction in the monthly CO2 sink can reach 12%. The maximum reduction of the monthly CO2 sink in the time series is 32%. This work suggests that the high variability, frequency and distribution of these calcifying plankton and their impact on pCO2 should be considered within modelling studies of the North Atlantic if we are to fully understand the variability of its air-to-sea CO2 flux.

scholarly journals Inverse Modeling of Global and Regional Energy and Water Cycle Fluxes using Earth Observation Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 1707-1723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Thomas ◽  
Bo Dong ◽  
Keith Haines
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
The North ◽  
Ocean Reanalyses ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Earth Observation Data

AbstractThe NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) climatology is a self-consistent coupled annual and seasonal cycle solution for radiative, turbulent, and water fluxes over Earth’s surface using Earth observation data covering 2000–09. Here we seek to improve the NEWS solution, particularly over the ocean basins, by considering spatial covariances in the observation errors (some evidence for which is found by comparing five turbulent flux products over the oceans) and by introducing additional horizontal transports from ocean reanalyses as weak constraints. By explicitly representing large error covariances between surface heat flux components over the major ocean basins we retain the flux contrasts present in the original data and infer additional heat losses over the North Atlantic Ocean, more consistent with a strong Atlantic overturning. This change does not alter the global flux balance but if only the errors in evaporation and precipitation are correlated then those fluxes experience larger adjustments (e.g., the surface latent heat flux increases to 85 ± 2 W m−2). Replacing SeaFlux v1 with J-OFURO v3 (Japanese Ocean Flux Data Sets with Use of Remote Sensing Observations) ocean fluxes also leads to a considerable increase in the global latent heat loss as well as a larger North Atlantic heat loss. Furthermore, including a weak constraint on the horizontal transports of heat and freshwater from high-resolution ocean reanalyses improves the net fluxes over the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Arctic Ocean, without any impact on the global flux balances. These results suggest that better characterized flux uncertainties can greatly improve the quality of the optimized flux solution.

scholarly journals Air-Sea CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes in the Atlantic as measured during boreal spring and autumn

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 1587-1606 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. A. Padin ◽  
M. Vázquez-Rodríguez ◽  
M. Castaño ◽  
A. Velo ◽  
F. Alonso-Pérez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Sea Surface Salinity ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
Co2 Absorption ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract. A total of fourteen hydrographic cruises from 2000 to 2008 were conducted during the spring and autumn seasons between Spain and the Southern Ocean under the framework of the Spanish research project FICARAM. The underway measurements were processed and analysed to describe the meridional air-sea CO2 fluxes (FCO2) in the covered sector of the Atlantic Ocean. The data has been grouped into different biogeochemical oceanographic provinces based on thermohaline characteristics. The spatial and temporal distributions of FCO2 followed expected distributions and annual trends reproducing the recent climatological ΔfCO2 estimations with a mean difference of −3 ± 18 μatm (Takahashi et al., 2009). The reduction in the CO2 saturation along the meridional FICARAM cruises represented an increase of 0.02 ± 0.14 mol m−2 yr−1 in the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2. The subtropical waters in both Hemispheres acted as a sink of atmospheric CO2 during the successive spring seasons and as a source in autumn. The coarse reduction of the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 observed in the North Atlantic Ocean was linked to conditions of negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation that prevailed during the FICARAM period. Surface waters in the North Equatorial Counter Current revealed a significant long-term decrease of sea surface salinity of −0.16 ± 0.01 yr−1 coinciding with a declination of −3.5 ± 0.9 μatm yr−1 in the air–sea disequilibrium of CO2 fugacity and a rise of oceanic CO2 uptake of −0.09 ± 0.03 mol m−2 yr−1. The largest CO2 source was located in the equatorial upwelling system. These tropical waters that reached emissions of 0.7 ± 0.5 and 1.0 ± 0.7 mol m−2 y−1 in spring and autumn, respectively, showed an interannual warming of 0.11 ± 0.03 °C yr−1 and a wind speed decrease of −0.58 ± 0.14 m s−1 yr−1 in spring cruises which suggest the weakening of upwelling events associated with warm El Niño – Southern Oscillation episodes. Contrary the surface waters of the Patagonian Sea behaved as an intense sink of CO2 in March and November. The oceanic waters of the convergence of Falkland and Brazil Currents showed the strongest CO2 absorption with a rate of −5.4 ± 3.6 mol m−2 yr−1 in November. The Southern Oceans sampled in the Drake Passage behave as an average uptake rate of −1.1 ± 0.9 mol m−2 yr−1 while the distal shelf of the Livingston Island acted as a slight source of CO2 to the atmosphere.

scholarly journals Interannual-to-decadal variability of North Atlantic air-sea CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Raynaud ◽  
O. Aumont ◽  
K. B. Rodgers ◽  
P. Yiou ◽  
J. C. Orr
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Co2 Flux ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Co2 Fluxes ◽  
The North ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Ocean Models ◽  
Atmospheric Inversions

Abstract. The magnitude of the interannual variability of North Atlantic air-sea CO2 fluxes remains uncertain. Fluxes inferred from atmospheric inversions have large variability, whereas those simulated by ocean models have small variability. Part of the difference is that unlike typical atmospheric inversions, ocean models come with spatial resolution at the sub-basin scale. Here we explore sub-basin-scale spatiotemporal variability in the North Atlantic in one ocean model in order to better understand why the the North Atlantic basin may well contribute very little to the global variability of air-sea CO2 flux. We made two simulations with a biogeochemical model coupled to a global ocean general circulation model (OGCM), which itself was forced by 55-year NCEP reanalysis fields. In the first simulation, atmospheric CO2 was maintained at the preindustrial level (278 ppmv); in the second simulation, atmospheric CO2 followed the observed increase. Simulated air-sea CO2 fluxes and associated variables were analysed with a statistical tool known as multichannel singular spectrum analysis (MSSA). We found that the subtropical gyre is not the largest contributor to the overall, basin-wide variability, in contrast to previous suggestions. The subpolar gyre and the inter-gyre region (the transition area between subpolar and subtropical gyres) also contribute with multipolar anomalies at multiple frequencies: these tend to cancel one another in terms of the basin-wide air-sea CO2 flux. We found a strong correlation between the air-sea CO2 fluxes and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), but only if one takes into account time lags as does MSSA (maximum r=0.64 for lags between 1 and 3 years). The contribution of anthropogenic CO2 to total variability was negligible at interannual time scales, whereas at the decadal (13-year) time scale, it increased variability by 30%.

scholarly journals Connection between Sea Surface Anomalies and Atmospheric Quasi-Stationary Waves

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-212
Author(s):  
G. Wolf ◽  
A. Czaja ◽  
D. J. Brayshaw ◽  
N. P. Klingaman
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

AbstractLarge-scale, quasi-stationary atmospheric waves (QSWs) are known to be strongly connected with extreme events and general weather conditions. Yet, despite their importance, there is still a lack of understanding about what drives variability in QSW. This study is a step toward this goal, and it identifies three statistically significant connections between QSWs and sea surface anomalies (temperature and ice cover) by applying a maximum covariance analysis technique to reanalysis data (1979–2015). The two most dominant connections are linked to El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation. They confirm the expected relationship between QSWs and anomalous surface conditions in the tropical Pacific and the North Atlantic, but they cannot be used to infer a driving mechanism or predictability from the sea surface temperature or the sea ice cover to the QSW. The third connection, in contrast, occurs between late winter to early spring Atlantic sea ice concentrations and anomalous QSW patterns in the following late summer to early autumn. This new finding offers a pathway for possible long-term predictability of late summer QSW occurrence.

scholarly journals The link between the Barents Sea and ENSO events simulated by NEMO model

Ocean Science ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 971-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. N. Stepanov ◽  
H. Zuo ◽  
K. Haines
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
The North ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract. An analysis of observational data in the Barents Sea along a meridian at 33°30' E between 70°30' and 72°30' N has reported a negative correlation between El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and water temperature in the top 200 m: the temperature drops about 0.5 °C during warm ENSO events while during cold ENSO events the top 200 m layer of the Barents Sea is warmer. Results from 1 and 1/4-degree global NEMO models show a similar response for the whole Barents Sea. During the strong warm ENSO event in 1997–1998 an anomalous anticyclonic atmospheric circulation over the Barents Sea enhances heat loses, as well as substantially influencing the Barents Sea inflow from the North Atlantic, via changes in ocean currents. Under normal conditions along the Scandinavian peninsula there is a warm current entering the Barents Sea from the North Atlantic, however after the 1997–1998 event this current is weakened. During 1997–1998 the model annual mean temperature in the Barents Sea is decreased by about 0.8 °C, also resulting in a higher sea ice volume. In contrast during the cold ENSO events in 1999–2000 and 2007–2008, the model shows a lower sea ice volume, and higher annual mean temperatures in the upper layer of the Barents Sea of about 0.7 °C. An analysis of model data shows that the strength of the Atlantic inflow in the Barents Sea is the main cause of heat content variability, and is forced by changing pressure and winds in the North Atlantic. However, surface heat-exchange with the atmosphere provides the means by which the Barents sea heat budget relaxes to normal in the subsequent year after the ENSO events.

scholarly journals The Influence of Surface Forcings on Prediction of the North Atlantic Oscillation Regime of Winter 2010/11

2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
pp. 3801-3813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Maidens ◽  
Alberto Arribas ◽  
Adam A. Scaife ◽  
Craig MacLachlan ◽  
Drew Peterson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
Real Time ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Temperature Fields ◽  
The Real ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract December 2010 was unusual both in the strength of the negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) intense atmospheric blocking and the associated record-breaking low temperatures over much of northern Europe. The negative North Atlantic Oscillation for November–January was predicted in October by 8 out of 11 World Meteorological Organization Global Producing Centres (WMO GPCs) of long-range forecasts. This paper examines whether the unusual strength of the NAO and temperature anomaly signals in early winter 2010 are attributable to slowly varying boundary conditions [El Niño–Southern Oscillation state, North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) tripole, Arctic sea ice extent, autumn Eurasian snow cover], and whether these were modeled in the Met Office Global Seasonal Forecasting System version 4 (GloSea4). Results from the real-time forecasts showed that a very robust signal was evident in both the surface pressure fields and temperature fields by the beginning of November. The historical reforecast set (hindcasts), used to calibrate and bias correct the real-time forecast, showed that the seasonal forecast model reproduces at least some of the observed physical mechanisms that drive the NAO. A series of ensembles of atmosphere-only experiments was constructed, using forecast SSTs and ice concentrations from November 2010. Each potential mechanism in turn was systematically isolated and removed, leading to the conclusion that the main mechanism responsible for the successful forecast of December 2010 was anomalous ocean heat content and associated SST anomalies in the North Atlantic.

Variability of the Oceanic Mixed Layer, 1960–2004

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1029-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Carton ◽  
Semyon A. Grodsky ◽  
Hailong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Layer ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Mixed Layer Depth ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Layer Depth ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Mixed Layers

Abstract A new monthly uniformly gridded analysis of mixed layer properties based on the World Ocean Atlas 2005 global ocean dataset is used to examine interannual and longer changes in mixed layer properties during the 45-yr period 1960–2004. The analysis reveals substantial variability in the winter–spring depth of the mixed layer in the subtropics and midlatitudes. In the North Pacific an empirical orthogonal function analysis shows a pattern of mixed layer depth variability peaking in the central subtropics. This pattern occurs coincident with intensification of local surface winds and may be responsible for the SST changes associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation. Years with deep winter–spring mixed layers coincide with years in which winter–spring SST is low. In the North Atlantic a pattern of winter–spring mixed layer depth variability occurs that is not so obviously connected to local changes in winds or SST, suggesting that other processes such as advection are more important. Interestingly, at decadal periods the winter–spring mixed layers of both basins show trends, deepening by 10–40 m over the 45-yr period of this analysis. The long-term mixed layer deepening is even stronger (50–100 m) in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. At tropical latitudes the boreal winter mixed layer varies in phase with the Southern Oscillation index, deepening in the eastern Pacific and shallowing in the western Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans during El Niños. In boreal summer the mixed layer in the Arabian Sea region of the western Indian Ocean varies in response to changes in the strength of the southwest monsoon.

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