The sensitivity of Southeast Pacific heat content to changes in ocean structure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Jones ◽  
Emma Boland ◽  
Andrew Meijers ◽  
Gael Forget ◽  
Simon Josey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Objective Function ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Adjoint Sensitivity ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Southeast Pacific

<p>The Southern Ocean features ventilation pathways that transport surface waters into the subsurface thermocline on timescales from decades to centuries, sequestering anomalies of heat and carbon away from the atmosphere and thereby regulating the rate of surface warming. Despite its importance for climate sensitivity, the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not well understood. In this study, we use an observationally-constrained, physically-consistent global ocean state estimate (i.e. ECCOv4) to examine how changes in ocean properties can affect the heat content both in the mixed layer and in the recently ventilated subsurface, focusing on the Southeast Pacific. First, we carry out a comprehensive adjoint sensitivity study using near-surface heat content as the objective function, highlighting the locations and timescales with the largest potential to affect the properties of relevant subduction regions. Next, we use a set of numerical tracer release experiments to identify the subduction and export pathways from the surface into the subsurface thermocline, thereby defining the recently ventilated interior. Using the tracer distribution to define our objective function, we employ an adjoint method to calculate temporally-evolving sensitivity maps that highlight the processes, locations, and timescales that are potentially most relevant for changing the heat content of the recently ventilated Pacific. In order to examine the full nonlinear response, we use the adjoint sensitivity fields to design a set of forward, nonlinear perturbation experiments. We find surprisingly weak sensitivities to high latitude wind stress and heat flux, and relatively high sensitivities to wind stress curl in subpolar latitudes. Despite the localized nature of mode water subduction hotspots, changes in basin-scale density gradients are an important controlling factor on heat distribution in the Southeast Pacific.</p>

scholarly journals The Sensitivity of Southeast Pacific Heat Distribution to Local and Remote Changes in Ocean Properties

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-790
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Jones ◽  
Emma Boland ◽  
Andrew J. S. Meijers ◽  
Gael Forget ◽  
Simon Josey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Heat Distribution ◽  
Ocean Temperature ◽  
Adjoint Sensitivity ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Southeast Pacific ◽  
Ocean Properties

AbstractThe Southern Ocean features ventilation pathways that transport surface waters into the subsurface thermocline on time scales from decades to centuries, sequestering anomalies of heat and carbon away from the atmosphere and thereby regulating the rate of surface warming. Despite its importance for climate sensitivity, the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not well understood. In this study, we use an observationally constrained, physically consistent global ocean model to examine the sensitivity of heat distribution in the recently ventilated subsurface Pacific (RVP) sector of the Southern Ocean to changes in ocean temperature and salinity. First, we define the RVP using numerical passive tracer release experiments that highlight the ventilation pathways. Next, we use an ensemble of adjoint sensitivity experiments to quantify the sensitivity of the RVP heat content to changes in ocean temperature and salinity. In terms of sensitivities to surface ocean properties, we find that RVP heat content is most sensitive to anomalies along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), upstream of the subduction hotspots. In terms of sensitivities to subsurface ocean properties, we find that RVP heat content is most sensitive to basin-scale changes in the subtropical Pacific Ocean, around the same latitudes as the RVP. Despite the localized nature of mode water subduction hotspots, changes in basin-scale density gradients are an important controlling factor on heat distribution in the southeast Pacific.

On the Role of Bottom Pressure Torques in Wind-Driven Gyres

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 1441-1464
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Stewart ◽  
James C. McWilliams ◽  
Aviv Solodoch
Keyword(s):  
Wind Stress ◽  
Bottom Friction ◽  
Bottom Pressure ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Previous Theory ◽  
Model Experiments ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Vorticity Budget ◽  
Gyre Circulation

AbstractPrevious studies have concluded that the wind-input vorticity in ocean gyres is balanced by bottom pressure torques (BPT), when integrated over latitude bands. However, the BPT must vanish when integrated over any area enclosed by an isobath. This constraint raises ambiguities regarding the regions over which BPT should close the vorticity budget, and implies that BPT generated to balance a local wind stress curl necessitates the generation of a compensating, nonlocal BPT and thus nonlocal circulation. This study aims to clarify the role of BPT in wind-driven gyres using an idealized isopycnal model. Experiments performed with a single-signed wind stress curl in an enclosed, sloped basin reveal that BPT balances the winds only when integrated over latitude bands. Integrating over other, dynamically motivated definitions of the gyre, such as barotropic streamlines, yields a balance between wind stress curl and bottom frictional torques. This implies that bottom friction plays a nonnegligible role in structuring the gyre circulation. Nonlocal bottom pressure torques manifest in the form of along-slope pressure gradients associated with a weak basin-scale circulation, and are associated with a transition to a balance between wind stress and bottom friction around the coasts. Finally, a suite of perturbation experiments is used to investigate the dynamics of BPT. To predict the BPT, the authors extend a previous theory that describes propagation of surface pressure signals from the gyre interior toward the coast along planetary potential vorticity contours. This theory is shown to agree closely with the diagnosed contributions to the vorticity budget across the suite of model experiments.

An Adjoint Analysis of the Meridional Overturning Circulation in a Hybrid Coupled Model

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (15) ◽  
pp. 3751-3767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Bugnion ◽  
Chris Hill ◽  
Peter H. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Meridional Overturning

Abstract Multicentury sensitivities in a realistic geometry global ocean general circulation model are analyzed using an adjoint technique. This paper takes advantage of the adjoint model’s ability to generate maps of the sensitivity of a diagnostic (i.e., the meridional overturning’s strength) to all model parameters. This property of adjoints is used to review several theories, which have been elaborated to explain the strength of the North Atlantic’s meridional overturning. This paper demonstrates the profound impact of boundary conditions in permitting or suppressing mechanisms within a realistic model of the contemporary ocean circulation. For example, the so-called Drake Passage Effect in which wind stress in the Southern Ocean acts as the main driver of the overturning’s strength, is shown to be an artifact of boundary conditions that restore the ocean’s surface temperature and salinity toward prescribed climatologies. Advective transports from the Indian and Pacific basins play an important role in setting the strength of the overturning circulation under “mixed” boundary conditions, in which a flux of freshwater is specified at the ocean’s surface. The most “realistic” regime couples an atmospheric energy and moisture balance model to the ocean. In this configuration, inspection of the global maps of sensitivity to wind stress and diapycnal mixing suggests a significant role for near-surface Ekman processes in the Tropics. Buoyancy also plays an important role in setting the overturning’s strength, through direct thermal forcing near the sites of convection, or through the advection of salinity anomalies in the Atlantic basin.

scholarly journals Evaluation of CMIP3 and CMIP5 Wind Stress Climatology Using Satellite Measurements and Atmospheric Reanalysis Products

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (16) ◽  
pp. 5810-5826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Lee ◽  
Duane E. Waliser ◽  
Jui-Lin F. Li ◽  
Felix W. Landerer ◽  
Michelle M. Gierach
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Zonal Wind ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Equatorial Pacific Ocean ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Meridional Heat Transport ◽  
Easterly Wind

Abstract Wind stress measurements from the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite and two atmospheric reanalysis products are used to evaluate the annual mean and seasonal cycle of wind stress simulated by phases 3 and 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3 and CMIP5). The ensemble CMIP3 and CMIP5 wind stresses are very similar to each other. Generally speaking, there is no significant improvement of CMIP5 over CMIP3. The CMIP ensemble–average zonal wind stress has eastward biases at midlatitude westerly wind regions (30°–50°N and 30°–50°S, with CMIP being too strong by as much as 55%), westward biases in subtropical–tropical easterly wind regions (15°–25°N and 15°–25°S), and westward biases at high-latitude regions (poleward of 55°S and 55°N). These biases correspond to too strong anticyclonic (cyclonic) wind stress curl over the subtropical (subpolar) ocean gyres, which would strengthen these gyres and influence oceanic meridional heat transport. In the equatorial zone, significant biases of CMIP wind exist in individual basins. In the equatorial Atlantic and Indian Oceans, CMIP ensemble zonal wind stresses are too weak and result in too small of an east–west gradient of sea level. In the equatorial Pacific Ocean, CMIP zonal wind stresses are too weak in the central and too strong in the western Pacific. These biases have important implications for the simulation of various modes of climate variability originating in the tropics. The CMIP as a whole overestimate the magnitude of seasonal variability by almost 50% when averaged over the entire global ocean. The biased wind stress climatologies in CMIP not only have implications for the simulated ocean circulation and climate variability but other air–sea fluxes as well.

How does heat flux affect potential vorticity in the Southern Ocean?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciara Pimm ◽  
Ric Williams ◽  
Dan Jones ◽  
Andrew Meijers
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Adjoint Sensitivity ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Physical Insight

<p>Surface heat loss leads to thick winter mixed layers over the Southern Ocean, which feeds the formation of subsurface mode water pools through subduction. One such water class is Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), which is characterised by its low absolute potential vorticity. SAMW occurs in several regions of the Southern Ocean on the northern side of the Antarctic circumpolar current and it extends into the subtropics below the surface on different density surfaces. Using the ECCOv4 global ocean circulation model, we conduct a series of adjoint sensitivity experiments and forward perturbation experiments at key Southern Ocean SAMW formation sites, focusing on how different surface forcing affects potential vorticity. This adjoint approach produces time-evolving sensitivity maps that identify where and when surface heat loss potentially impacts the formation of mode waters. Over the first year in lead time, we find that greater surface heat loss leads to stronger convection and lower SAMW potential vorticity. On lead times longer than one year, in some regions of high sensitivity, the sensitivity reverses its sign, such that more surface heat loss ultimately leads to higher values of potential vorticity in the subduction regions. This reversal of sign of the sensitivity can be attributed to a shift from local convective forcing to upstream advective forcing and the associated redistribution of potential temperature and salinity. Surface adjustment also plays a role in the upstream sensitivities due to the tendency for temperature anomalies to be weakened through compensating salinity before reaching the subduction zone. We use the adjoint sensitivity fields to design a set of forward, non-linear perturbation experiments to provide physical insight into how ventilation affects the uptake of heat and carbon. This physical insight is important for identifying which physical mechanisms affect the subducted properties in the Southern Ocean, especially as the ocean warms through climate change.</p>

Control of Decadal and Bidecadal Climate Variability in the Tropical Pacific by the Off-Equatorial South Pacific Ocean

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (17) ◽  
pp. 6524-6534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Tatebe ◽  
Yukiko Imada ◽  
Masato Mori ◽  
Masahide Kimoto ◽  
Hiroyasu Hasumi
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Ocean Dynamics ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Tropical Variability ◽  
Stress Changes

Abstract Delayed negative feedback processes determining intrinsic decadal and bidecadal time scales for the tropical variability in the Pacific are investigated based on climate model experiments. By comparing a control run driven by preindustrial forcing and partial blocking runs driven by the same forcing but with ocean temperature and salinity restored to climatology in selected regions, subsurface oceanic signals of South Pacific origin are shown to precede SST variability in the Niño-3.4 region. Using a linear reduced-gravity ocean model driven only by wind stress changes and an offline tracer model, oceanic wave adjustment triggered by changes of wind stress curl in the South Pacific extratropics is suggested to be essential for the decadal component of the equatorial SST, while slower isopycnal advection of subsurface temperature anomalies from the formation region of South Pacific Eastern Subtropical Mode Water controls the bidecadal component. The intrinsic time scales of the tropical variability are regulated by simple linear ocean dynamics.

scholarly journals Decoupling of the Agulhas Leakage from the Agulhas Current

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 1776-1797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Loveday ◽  
Jonathan V. Durgadoo ◽  
Chris J. C. Reason ◽  
Arne Biastoch ◽  
Pierrick Penven
Keyword(s):  
Wind Stress ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Current Transport ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Agulhas Current ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Stress Changes ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Abstract The relationship between the Agulhas Current and the Agulhas leakage is not well understood. Here, this is investigated using two basin-scale and two global ocean models of incrementally increasing resolution. The response of the Agulhas Current is evaluated under a series of sensitivity experiments, in which idealized anomalies, designed to geometrically modulate zonal trade wind stress, are applied across the Indian Ocean Basin. The imposed wind stress changes exceed plus or minus two standard deviations from the annual-mean trade winds and, in the case of intensification, are partially representative of recently observed trends. The Agulhas leakage is quantified using complimentary techniques based on Lagrangian virtual floats and Eulerian passive tracer flux. As resolution increases, model behavior converges and the sensitivity of the leakage to Agulhas Current transport anomalies is reduced. In the two eddy-resolving configurations tested, the leakage is insensitive to changes in Agulhas Current transport at 32°S, though substantial eddy kinetic energy anomalies are evident. Consistent with observations, the position of the retroflection remains stable. The decoupling of Agulhas Current variability from the Agulhas leakage suggests that while correlations between the two may exist, they may not have a clear dynamical basis. It is suggested that present and future Agulhas leakage proxies should be considered in the context of potentially transient forcing regimes.

scholarly journals Mooring Observations of Air–Sea Heat Fluxes in Two Subantarctic Mode Water Formation Regions

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 2757-2777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Tamsitt ◽  
Ivana Cerovečki ◽  
Simon A. Josey ◽  
Sarah T. Gille ◽  
Eric Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
The South ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Cold Air ◽  
Subantarctic Mode Water ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Southeast Pacific

AbstractWintertime surface ocean heat loss is the key process driving the formation of Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), but there are few direct observations of heat fluxes, particularly during winter. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Southern Ocean mooring in the southeast Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean Flux Station (SOFS) in the southeast Indian Ocean provide the first concurrent, multiyear time series of air–sea fluxes in the Southern Ocean from two key SAMW formation regions. In this work we compare drivers of wintertime heat loss and SAMW formation by comparing air–sea fluxes and mixed layers at these two mooring locations. A gridded Argo product and the ERA5 reanalysis product provide temporal and spatial context for the mooring observations. Turbulent ocean heat loss is on average 1.5 times larger in the southeast Indian (SOFS) than in the southeast Pacific (OOI), with stronger extreme heat flux events in the southeast Indian leading to larger cumulative winter ocean heat loss. Turbulent heat loss events in the southeast Indian (SOFS) occur in two atmospheric regimes (cold air from the south or dry air circulating via the north), while heat loss events in the southeast Pacific (OOI) occur in a single atmospheric regime (cold air from the south). On interannual time scales, wintertime anomalies in net heat flux and mixed layer depth (MLD) are often correlated at the two sites, particularly when wintertime MLDs are anomalously deep. This relationship is part of a larger basin-scale zonal dipole in heat flux and MLD anomalies present in both the Indian and Pacific basins, associated with anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation.

scholarly journals Low-Frequency Surface Currents and Generation of an Island Lee Eddy in Panay Island, Philippines

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charina Lyn Amedo-Repollo ◽  
Xavier Flores-Vidal ◽  
Cedric Chavanne ◽  
Cesar L. Villanoy ◽  
Pierre Flament
Keyword(s):  
Wind Stress ◽  
Doppler Radar ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler ◽  
Cyclonic Eddy ◽  
Surface Currents ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Geostrophic Balance ◽  
Mesoscale Currents

AbstractHigh-frequency Doppler radar (HFDR) and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) time-series observations during the Philippine Straits Dynamics Experiment (PhilEx) were analyzed to describe the mesoscale currents in Panay Strait, Philippines. Low-frequency surface currents inferred from three HFDR (July 2008–July 2009), reveal a clear seasonal signal concurrent with the reversal of the Asian monsoon. A mesoscale cyclonic eddy west of Panay Island is generated during the winter northeast (NE) monsoon. This causes changes in the strength, depth, and width of the intraseasonal Panay coastal (PC) jet as its eastern limb. Winds from QuikSCAT and from a nearby airport indicate that these flow structures correlate with the strength and direction of the prevailing local wind. An intensive survey in 8–9 February 2009 using 24 h of successive cross-shore conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) sections, which in conjunction with shipboard ADCP measurements, show a well-developed cyclonic eddy characterized by near-surface velocities of 50 cm s−1. This eddy coincides with the intensification of the wind in between Mindoro and Panay Islands, generating a positive wind stress curl in the lee of Panay, which in turn induces divergent surface currents. Water column response from the mean transects show a pronounced signal of upwelling, indicated by the doming of isotherms and isopycnals. A pressure gradient then is set up, resulting in the spin up of a cyclonic eddy in geostrophic balance. Evolution of the vorticity within the vortex core confirms wind stress curl as the dominant forcing.

scholarly journals Global and Full-Depth Ocean Temperature Trends during the Early Twenty-First Century from Argo and Repeat Hydrography

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1985-1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Desbruyères ◽  
Elaine L. McDonagh ◽  
Brian A. King ◽  
Virginie Thierry
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Content Increase ◽  
Temperature Changes ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Repeat Hydrography ◽  
Southern Oceans

The early twenty-first century’s warming trend of the full-depth global ocean is calculated by combining the analysis of Argo (top 2000 m) and repeat hydrography into a blended full-depth observing system. The surface-to-bottom temperature change over the last decade of sustained observation is equivalent to a heat uptake of 0.71 ± 0.09 W m−2 applied over the surface of Earth, 90% of it being found above 2000-m depth. The authors decompose the temperature trend pointwise into changes in isopycnal depth (heave) and temperature changes along an isopycnal (spiciness) to describe the mechanisms controlling the variability. The heave component dominates the global heat content increase, with the largest trends found in the Southern Hemisphere’s extratropics (0–2000 m) highlighting a volumetric increase of subtropical mode waters. Significant heave-related warming is also found in the deep North Atlantic and Southern Oceans (2000–4000 m), reflecting a potential decrease in deep water mass renewal rates. The spiciness component shows its strongest contribution at intermediate levels (700–2000 m), with striking localized warming signals in regions of intense vertical mixing (North Atlantic and Southern Oceans). Finally, the agreement between the independent Argo and repeat hydrography temperature changes at 2000 m provides an overall good confidence in the blended heat content evaluation on global and ocean scales but also highlights basin-scale discrepancies between the two independent estimates. Those mismatches are largest in those basins with the largest heave signature (Southern Ocean) and reflect both the temporal and spatial sparseness of the hydrography sampling.

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