Seasonal and interannual variability of global internal tides

Author(s):  
Harpreet Kaur ◽  
Maarten Buijsman

<p>In this study, we investigate the seasonal and interannual variability of internal tides in the global ocean using a Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) and altimetry data. The variability of internal tides is caused by the time varying stratification, mesoscale activity, large-scale shifts in amphidromic points, and changes in ice cover. The variation in the background fields generates the non-phase locked internal tides which are non-stationary. Non-stationary internal tides are less predictable than stationary tides, complicating regional model forcing with remote internal tide signals and the separation of internal tides from mesoscales. We will use 6 years of steric SSH extracted from a global HYCOM simulation with a horizontal resolution of 8 km and 32 layers to study the variability of internal tides. Our objective is to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of the amplitude and phase of the diurnal and semidiurnal internal tides. The SSH time series will be divided into time segments with different durations. The least-squares harmonic analysis will be used to extract SSH amplitude and phase for M2, K1, O1, and S2 constituents for these time segments. It has been found that the stationary amplitude decreases with an increase in the duration of the time series. We will also use empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) analysis to determine the seasonal and interannual variability in the monthly-mean internal tide amplitude and phase. The global maps of the non-stationarity fraction for the internal tidal constituents will be shown for each season. These results will be compared with 25 years of satellite altimetry data to find out whether similar variance decay trends are observed in the altimetry data.</p>

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Ionac ◽  
Monica Matei

Abstract The present paper investigates on the spatial and temporal variability of maximum and minimum air-temperatures in Romania and their connection to the European climate variability. The European climate variability is expressed by large scale parameters, which are roughly represented by the geopotential height at 500 hPa (H500) and air temperature at 850 hPa (T850). The Romanian data are represented by the time series at 22 weather stations, evenly distributed over the entire country’s territory. The period that was taken into account was 1961-2010, for the summer and winter seasons. The method of empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) has been used, in order to analyze the connection between the temperature variability in Romania and the same variability at a larger scale, by taking into consideration the atmosphere circulation. The time series associated to the first two EOF patterns of local temperatures and large-scale anomalies were considered with regard to trends and shifts in their mean values. The non- Mann-Kendall and Pettitt parametric tests were used in this respect. The results showed a strong correlation between T850 parameter and minimum and maximum air temperatures in Romania. Also, the ample variance expressed by the first EOF configurations suggests a connection between local and large scale climate variability.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1227-1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Sumargo ◽  
Daniel R. Cayan

Abstract This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of cloudiness across mountain zones in the western United States. Daily average cloud albedo is derived from a 19-yr series (1996–2014) of half-hourly Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) images. During springtime when incident radiation is active in driving snowmelt–runoff processes, the magnitude of daily cloud variations can exceed 50% of long-term averages. Even when aggregated over 3-month periods, cloud albedo varies by ±10% of long-term averages in many locations. Rotated empirical orthogonal functions (REOFs) of daily cloud albedo anomalies over high-elevation regions of the western conterminous United States identify distinct regional patterns, wherein the first five REOFs account for ~67% of the total variance. REOF1 is centered over Northern California and Oregon and is pronounced between November and March. REOF2 is centered over the interior northwest and is accentuated between March and July. Each of the REOF/rotated principal components (RPC) modes associates with anomalous large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns and one or more large-scale teleconnection indices (Arctic Oscillation, Niño-3.4, and Pacific–North American), which helps to explain why anomalous cloudiness patterns take on regional spatial scales and contain substantial variability over seasonal time scales.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 3165-3188
Author(s):  
Pengyang Song ◽  
Xueen Chen

AbstractA global ocean circulation and tide model with nonuniform resolution is used in this work to resolve the ocean circulation globally as well as mesoscale eddies and internal tides regionally. Focusing on the northwest Pacific Ocean (NWP, 0°–35°N, 105°–150°E), a realistic experiment is conducted to simulate internal tides considering the background circulation and stratification. To investigate the influence of a background field on the generation and propagation of internal tides, idealized cases with horizontally homogeneous stratification and zero surface fluxes are also implemented for comparison. By comparing the realistic cases with idealized ones, the astronomical tidal forcing is found to be the dominant factor influencing the internal tide conversion rate magnitude, whereas the stratification acts as a secondary factor. However, stratification deviations in different areas can lead to an error exceeding 30% in the local internal tide energy conversion rate, indicating the necessity of a realistic stratification setting for simulating the entire NWP. The background shear is found to refract propagating diurnal internal tides by changing the effective Coriolis frequencies and phase speeds, while the Doppler-shifting effect is remarkable for introducing biases to semidiurnal results. In addition, nonlinear baroclinic tide energy equations considering the background circulation and stratification are derived and diagnosed in this work. The mean flow–baroclinic tide interaction and nonlinear energy flux are the most significant nonlinear terms in the derived equations, and nonlinearity is estimated to contribute approximately 5% of the total internal tide energy in the greater Luzon Strait area.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casimir de Lavergne ◽  
Clément Vic ◽  
Gurvan Madec ◽  
Fabien Roquet ◽  
Amy Waterhouse ◽  
...  

<p>Vertical mixing is often regarded as the Achilles’ heel of ocean models. In particular, few models include a comprehensive and energy-constrained parameterization of mixing by internal ocean tides. Here, we present an energy-conserving mixing scheme which accounts for the local breaking of high-mode internal tides and the distant dissipation of low-mode internal tides. The scheme relies on four static two-dimensional maps of internal tide dissipation, constructed using mode-by-mode Lagrangian tracking of energy beams from sources to sinks. Each map is associated with a distinct dissipative process and a corresponding vertical structure. Applied to an observational climatology of stratification, the scheme produces a global three-dimensional map of dissipation which compares well with available microstructure observations and with upper-ocean finestructure mixing estimates. Implemented in the NEMO global ocean model, the scheme improves the representation of deep water-mass transformation and obviates the need for a constant background diffusivity.</p>


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 1931-1948 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Stammer ◽  
S. Park ◽  
A. Köhl ◽  
R. Lukas ◽  
F. Santiago-Mandujano

Abstract Results from Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO)–Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) global ocean state estimate, available over the 11-yr period 1992 through 2002, are compared with independent observations available at the Hawaii Ocean time series station ALOHA. The comparison shows that at this position, the estimated temporal variability has some skill in simulating observed ocean variability and that the quality of future syntheses could benefit from additional information available from the Argo network and from the time series observations themselves. On a decadal time scale, the influence radius of the station ALOHA T–S time series covers large parts of the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean and reaches even into the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Throughflow. Estimated changes in sea surface height (SSH) result largely from thermosteric changes; however, nonsteric (barotropic) variations on the order of 1–2 cm also contribute to SSH changes at station ALOHA. Moreover, changes of similar magnitude can be caused by changes in the salinity field because of a quasi-biennial oscillation in the horizontal flow structure and heaving of the mean salinity structure on seasonal and interannual time scales. The adjoint modeling framework confirms westward-propagating Rossby waves (due to wind forcing) and subduction of water-mass anomalies (due to surface buoyancy forcing) as the primary mechanisms leading to observed changes of T–S structures at station ALOHA. Specifically, the analysis identifies surface freshwater fluxes along the wintertime outcrop of intermediate waters as a primary cause for salinity changes at station ALOHA and wind stress forcing east of the station position as another forcing mechanism of salinity variations around the Hawaiian Archipelago.


Ocean Science ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1067-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Isabelle Pujol ◽  
Yannice Faugère ◽  
Guillaume Taburet ◽  
Stéphanie Dupuy ◽  
Camille Pelloquin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The new DUACS DT2014 reprocessed products have been available since April 2014. Numerous innovative changes have been introduced at each step of an extensively revised data processing protocol. The use of a new 20-year altimeter reference period in place of the previous 7-year reference significantly changes the sea level anomaly (SLA) patterns and thus has a strong user impact. The use of up-to-date altimeter standards and geophysical corrections, reduced smoothing of the along-track data, and refined mapping parameters, including spatial and temporal correlation-scale refinement and measurement errors, all contribute to an improved high-quality DT2014 SLA data set. Although all of the DUACS products have been upgraded, this paper focuses on the enhancements to the gridded SLA products over the global ocean. As part of this exercise, 21 years of data have been homogenized, allowing us to retrieve accurate large-scale climate signals such as global and regional MSL trends, interannual signals, and better refined mesoscale features.An extensive assessment exercise has been carried out on this data set, which allows us to establish a consolidated error budget. The errors at mesoscale are about 1.4 cm2 in low-variability areas, increase to an average of 8.9 cm2 in coastal regions, and reach nearly 32.5 cm2 in high mesoscale activity areas. The DT2014 products, compared to the previous DT2010 version, retain signals for wavelengths lower than  ∼  250 km, inducing SLA variance and mean EKE increases of, respectively, +5.1 and +15 %. Comparisons with independent measurements highlight the improved mesoscale representation within this new data set. The error reduction at the mesoscale reaches nearly 10 % of the error observed with DT2010. DT2014 also presents an improved coastal signal with a nearly 2 to 4 % mean error reduction. High-latitude areas are also more accurately represented in DT2014, with an improved consistency between spatial coverage and sea ice edge position. An error budget is used to highlight the limitations of the new gridded products, with notable errors in areas with strong internal tides.


Ocean Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Guihou ◽  
Alberto R. Piola ◽  
Elbio D. Palma ◽  
Maria Paz Chidichimo

Abstract. The Humboldt Large Marine Ecosystem (HLME) and Patagonian Large Marine Ecosystem (PLME) are the two largest marine ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere and are respectively located along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of southern South America. This work investigates the exchange between these two LMEs and its seasonal and interannual variability by employing numerical model results and offline particle-tracking algorithms. Our analysis suggests a general poleward transport on the southern region of the HLME, a well-defined flux from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and equatorward transport on the PLME. Lagrangian simulations show that the majority of the southern PS waters originate from the upper layer in the southeast South Pacific (<200 m), mainly from the southern Chile and Cape Horn shelves. The exchange takes place through the Le Maire Strait, Magellan Strait, and the shelf break. These inflows amount to a net northeastward transport of 0.88 Sv at 51∘ S in the southern PLME. The transport across the Magellan Strait is small (0.1 Sv), but due to its relatively low salinity it greatly impacts the density and surface circulation of the coastal waters of the southern PLME. The water masses flowing into the Malvinas Embayment eventually reach the PLME through the Malvinas Shelf and occupy the outer part of the shelf. The seasonal and interannual variability of the transport are also addressed. On the southern PLME, the interannual variability of the shelf exchange is partly explained by the large-scale wind variability, which in turn is partly associated with the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) index (r=0.52).


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 7439-7452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaokang Wu ◽  
Huang Yang ◽  
Darryn W. Waugh ◽  
Clara Orbe ◽  
Simone Tilmes ◽  
...  

Abstract. The seasonal and interannual variability of transport times from the northern midlatitude surface into the Southern Hemisphere is examined using simulations of three idealized “age” tracers: an ideal age tracer that yields the mean transit time from northern midlatitudes and two tracers with uniform 50- and 5-day decay. For all tracers the largest seasonal and interannual variability occurs near the surface within the tropics and is generally closely coupled to movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). There are, however, notable differences in variability between the different tracers. The largest seasonal and interannual variability in the mean age is generally confined to latitudes spanning the ITCZ, with very weak variability in the southern extratropics. In contrast, for tracers subject to spatially uniform exponential loss the peak variability tends to be south of the ITCZ, and there is a smaller contrast between tropical and extratropical variability. These differences in variability occur because the distribution of transit times from northern midlatitudes is very broad and tracers with more rapid loss are more sensitive to changes in fast transit times than the mean age tracer. These simulations suggest that the seasonal–interannual variability in the southern extratropics of trace gases with predominantly NH midlatitude sources may differ depending on the gases' chemical lifetimes.


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