Global ocean surface stratifications due to rain based on ERA5

Author(s):  
Hugo Bellenger ◽  
Xavier Perrot ◽  
Lionel Guez ◽  
Jean-Philippe Duvel ◽  
Alexandre Supply ◽  
...  

<p>Temperature and Salinity at the ocean interface can be substantially different than their bulk values in the ocean mixed layer at 5-10 meters depth. The main phenomena that account for these differences are (i) the interfacial millimeter scale diffusive microlayer usually cooler and saltier than below due to surface fluxes and (ii) diurnal warm layers of few tens of centimeters to few meters that form under weak wind condition due to solar absorption. Although characterized by small vertical scales, these tightly wind-related phenomena corresponds to coherent structures up to the large-scale where they can impact air-sea exchanges of heat, water and chemical species. Another phenomenon that can impact global air-sea exchanges is the freshwater lenses produced by rain. Rain freshens and cools the ocean surface, as raindrops temperature is usually lower than surface temperature. The induced negative salinity anomaly enables surface cold anomalies to be sustained and further cooled down by surface fluxes after rain has ceased. This study presents a first global estimate of basic statistics rain-induced ocean surface freshening and temperature changes and of their variations with seasons.</p>

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 3771-3851 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Masson ◽  
P. Le Moigne ◽  
E. Martin ◽  
S. Faroux ◽  
A. Alias ◽  
...  

Abstract. SURFEX is a new externalized land and ocean surface platform that describes the surface fluxes and the evolution of four types of surface: nature, town, inland water and ocean. It can be run either coupled or in offline mode. It is mostly based on pre-existing, well validated scientific models. It can be used in offline mode (from point scale to global runs) or fully coupled with an atmospheric model. SURFEX is able to simulate fluxes of carbon dioxide, chemical species, continental aerosols, sea salt and snow particles. It also includes a data assimilation module. The main principles of the organization of the surface are described first. Then, a survey is made of the scientific module (including the coupling strategy). Finally the main applications of the code are summarized. The current applications are extremely diverse, ranging from surface monitoring and hydrology to numerical weather prediction and global climate simulations. The validation work undertaken shows that replacing the pre-existing surface models by SURFEX in these applications is usually associated with improved skill, as the numerous scientific developments contained in this community code are used to good advantage.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 809-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Xu ◽  
M. Werner ◽  
M. Butzin ◽  
G. Lohmann

Abstract. The stable water isotopes H218O and HDO are incorporated as passive tracers into the oceanic general circulation model MPI-OM, and a control simulation under present-day climate conditions is analyzed in detail. Both δ18O and δD distributions at the ocean surface and deep ocean are generally consistent with available observations on the large scale. The modelled δD-δ 18O relations in surface waters slightly deviates from the slope of the global meteoric water line in most basins, and a much steeper slope is detected in Arctic Oceans. The simulated deuterium excess of ocean surface waters shows small variations between 80° S and 55° N, and a strong decrease north of 55° N. The model is also able to capture the quasi-linear relationship between δ18O and salinity S, as well as δD and S, as seen in observational data. Both in the model results and observations, the surface δ−S relations show a steeper slope in extra-tropical regions than in tropical regions, which indicates relatively more addition of isotopically depleted water at high latitudes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-307
Author(s):  
X. Xu ◽  
M. Werner ◽  
M. Butzin ◽  
G. Lohmann

Abstract. The stable water isotopes H218O and HDO are incorporated as passive tracers into the oceanic general circulation model MPI-OM, and a control simulation under present-day climate conditions is analyzed in detail. Both δ18O and δD distributions at the ocean surface and deep ocean are generally consistent with available observations on the large scale. The modelled δD-δ18O relations in surface waters slightly deviates from the slope of the global meteoric water line in most basins, and a much steeper slope is detected in Arctic Oceans. The simulated deuterium excess of ocean surface waters shows small variations between 80° S and 55° N, and a strong decrease north of 55° N. The model is also able to capture the quasi-linear relationship between δ18O and salinity S, as well as δD and S, as seen in observational data. Both in the model results and observations, the surface δ–S relations show a steeper slope in extra-tropical regions than in tropical regions, which indicates relatively more addition of isotopically depleted water at high latitudes.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanping He

AbstractProbability distributions of surface wind speeds (SWS) near coastal regions are needed for applications such as estimating offshore wind power and ocean surface fluxes and for offshore wind risk assessments. Ocean surface wind speed probability distribution (PDF) is characterized using three-year QuikSCAT and AIRS satellite observations in the southeast Pacific of marine stratus and stratocumulus (MSC) regions. Seasonal variation is removed from wind statistics. It was found that the observed SWS standard deviation has a linear positive relationship with its mean SWS; while the SWS skewness decreases with mean SWS in regimes of strong winds and increases with mean SWS in regimes of weak winds. A simple 1D conceptual model is developed near the Peruvian region, which successfully reproduces the observed relationship between higher moments of SWS and its mean value. The model based physical picture among ocean surface winds, SST, and marine boundary clouds are supported by three-year QuikSCAT surface wind observations and fifteen-year ERA40 re-analysis data. Model sensitive tests suggest that large-scale divergence, and strengths of momentum and cloud fluctuations have significant effects on the ocean SWS-PDF in marine stratus and stratocumulus regions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 929-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Masson ◽  
P. Le Moigne ◽  
E. Martin ◽  
S. Faroux ◽  
A. Alias ◽  
...  

Abstract. SURFEX is a new externalized land and ocean surface platform that describes the surface fluxes and the evolution of four types of surfaces: nature, town, inland water and ocean. It is mostly based on pre-existing, well-validated scientific models that are continuously improved. The motivation for the building of SURFEX is to use strictly identical scientific models in a high range of applications in order to mutualise the research and development efforts. SURFEX can be run in offline mode (0-D or 2-D runs) or in coupled mode (from mesoscale models to numerical weather prediction and climate models). An assimilation mode is included for numerical weather prediction and monitoring. In addition to momentum, heat and water fluxes, SURFEX is able to simulate fluxes of carbon dioxide, chemical species, continental aerosols, sea salt and snow particles. The main principles of the organisation of the surface are described first. Then, a survey is made of the scientific module (including the coupling strategy). Finally, the main applications of the code are summarised. The validation work undertaken shows that replacing the pre-existing surface models by SURFEX in these applications is usually associated with improved skill, as the numerous scientific developments contained in this community code are used to good advantage.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Moreira Lima

This paper is concerned with the planning, implementation and some results of the Oceanographic Modeling and Observation Network, named REMO, for Brazilian regional waters. Ocean forecasting has been an important scientific issue over the last decade due to studies related to climate change as well as applications related to short-range oceanic forecasts. The South Atlantic Ocean has a deficit of oceanographic measurements when compared to other ocean basins such as the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean. It is a challenge to design an ocean forecasting system for a region with poor observational coverage of in-situ data. Fortunately, most ocean forecasting systems heavily rely on the assimilation of surface fields such as sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) or sea surface temperature (SST), acquired by environmental satellites, that can accurately provide information that constrain major surface current systems and their mesoscale activity. An integrated approach is proposed here in which the large scale circulation in the Atlantic Ocean is modeled in a first step, and gradually nested into higher resolution regional models that are able to resolve important processes such as the Brazil Current and associated mesoscale variability, continental shelf waves, local and remote wind forcing, and others. This article presents the overall strategy to develop the models using a network of Brazilian institutions and their related expertise along with international collaboration. This work has some similarity with goals of the international project Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment OceanView (GODAE OceanView).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1335
Author(s):  
Ronald Souza ◽  
Luciano Pezzi ◽  
Sebastiaan Swart ◽  
Fabrício Oliveira ◽  
Marcelo Santini

The Brazil–Malvinas Confluence (BMC) is one of the most dynamical regions of the global ocean. Its variability is dominated by the mesoscale, mainly expressed by the presence of meanders and eddies, which are understood to be local regulators of air-sea interaction processes. The objective of this work is to study the local modulation of air-sea interaction variables by the presence of either a warm (ED1) and a cold core (ED2) eddy, present in the BMC, during September to November 2013. The translation and lifespans of both eddies were determined using satellite-derived sea level anomaly (SLA) data. Time series of satellite-derived surface wind data, as well as these and other meteorological variables, retrieved from ERA5 reanalysis at the eddies’ successive positions in time, allowed us to investigate the temporal modulation of the lower atmosphere by the eddies’ presence along their translation and lifespan. The reanalysis data indicate a mean increase of 78% in sensible and 55% in latent heat fluxes along the warm eddy trajectory in comparison to the surrounding ocean of the study region. Over the cold core eddy, on the other hand, we noticed a mean reduction of 49% and 25% in sensible and latent heat fluxes, respectively, compared to the adjacent ocean. Additionally, a field campaign observed both eddies and the lower atmosphere from ship-borne observations before, during and after crossing both eddies in the study region during October 2013. The presence of the eddies was imprinted on several surface meteorological variables depending on the sea surface temperature (SST) in the eddy cores. In situ oceanographic and meteorological data, together with high frequency micrometeorological data, were also used here to demonstrate that the local, rather than the large scale forcing of the eddies on the atmosphere above, is, as expected, the principal driver of air-sea interaction when transient atmospheric systems are stable (not actively varying) in the study region. We also make use of the in situ data to show the differences (biases) between bulk heat flux estimates (used on atmospheric reanalysis products) and eddy covariance measurements (taken as “sea truth”) of both sensible and latent heat fluxes. The findings demonstrate the importance of short-term changes (minutes to hours) in both the atmosphere and the ocean in contributing to these biases. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of the mesoscale oceanographic structures in the BMC on impacting local air-sea heat fluxes and the marine atmospheric boundary layer stability, especially under large scale, high-pressure atmospheric conditions.


Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Lahouari Bounoua ◽  
Kurtis Thome ◽  
Joseph Nigro

Urbanization is a complex land transformation not explicitly resolved within large-scale climate models. Long-term timeseries of high-resolution satellite data are essential to characterize urbanization within land surface models and to assess its contribution to surface temperature changes. The potential for additional surface warming from urbanization-induced land use change is investigated and decoupled from that due to change in climate over the continental US using a decadal timescale. We show that, aggregated over the US, the summer mean urban-induced surface temperature increased by 0.15 °C, with a warming of 0.24 °C in cities built in vegetated areas and a cooling of 0.25 °C in cities built in non-vegetated arid areas. This temperature change is comparable in magnitude to the 0.13 °C/decade global warming trend observed over the last 50 years caused by increased CO2. We also show that the effect of urban-induced change on surface temperature is felt above and beyond that of the CO2 effect. Our results suggest that climate mitigation policies must consider urbanization feedback to put a limit on the worldwide mean temperature increase.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Wagner ◽  
Andre Souza ◽  
Adeline Hillier ◽  
Ali Ramadhan ◽  
Raffaele Ferrari

<p>Parameterizations of turbulent mixing in the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) are key Earth System Model (ESM) components that modulate the communication of heat and carbon between the atmosphere and ocean interior. OSBL turbulence parameterizations are formulated in terms of unknown free parameters estimated from observational or synthetic data. In this work we describe the development and use of a synthetic dataset called the “LESbrary” generated by a large number of idealized, high-fidelity, limited-area large eddy simulations (LES) of OSBL turbulent mixing. We describe how the LESbrary design leverages a detailed understanding of OSBL conditions derived from observations and large scale models to span the range of realistically diverse physical scenarios. The result is a diverse library of well-characterized “synthetic observations” that can be readily assimilated for the calibration of realistic OSBL parameterizations in isolation from other ESM model components. We apply LESbrary data to calibrate free parameters, develop prior estimates of parameter uncertainty, and evaluate model errors in two OSBL parameterizations for use in predictive ESMs.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 20802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaoheng Xie ◽  
Yue Yishi ◽  
Huisheng Ye ◽  
Liu Yun ◽  
Yongheng Zhong ◽  
...  

Discontinuous leader development is the most important discharge process under the application of the switching impulse voltage with the low rate of voltage rising, which is of great significance to study the external insulation characteristics of ultra-high voltage (UHV) large scale air gap. Based on the CMOS high-speed camera, a discharge test with different operating impulse voltage is carried out by constructing a comprehensive observation platform of rod-plate air gap discharge, and a clear discontinuous leader development process picture is captured. Moreover, the leader current, injection charge and leader channel unit length charge, and their characteristics of the change trend are also obtained. Further analysis based on the experimental results shows that the discontinuous leader development under the action of the impulse voltage with low rate of voltage rising has two different laws. Finally, this paper uses the thermodynamic equation, combined with the test results, the channel temperature changes in the discontinuous leader development stagnation stage were calculated. The results show that the leader channel temperature is still greater than 1500 K in the hundreds of microsecond time scales in the leader stagnation stage, and the subsequent leader can continue to develop on the original leader channel.


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