Description: Variability and trends in seasonal and interannual ice area export out of the Laptev Sea between 1992 and 2011 are investigated using satellite-based sea ice drift and concentration data. We found an average total winter (October to May) ice area transport across the northern and eastern Laptev Sea boundaries (NB and EB) of 3.48 × 10hoch5 km2. The average transport across the NB (2.87 × 10hoch5 km2)is thereby higher than across the EB (0.61 × 10hoch5 km2), with a less pronounced seasonal cycle. The total Laptev Sea ice area flux significantly increased over the last decades (0.85 × 10hoch5 km2 decade−1, p 〉 0.95), dominated by increasing export through the EB (0.55 × 10hoch5 km2 decade−1, p 〉 0.90), while the increase in export across the NB is smaller (0.3 × 10hoch5 km2 decade−1) and statistically not significant. The strong coupling between across-boundary SLP gradient and ice drift velocity indicates that monthly variations in ice area flux are primarily controlled by changes in geostrophic wind velocities, although the Laptev Sea ice circulation shows no clear relationship with large-scale atmospheric indices. Also there is no evidence of increasing wind velocities that could explain the overall positive trends in ice export. The increased transport rates are rather the consequence of a changing ice cover such as thinning and/or a decrease in concentration. The use of a back-propagation method revealed that most of the ice that is incorporated into the Transpolar Drift is formed during freeze-up and originates from the central and western part of the Laptev Sea, while the exchange with the East Siberian Sea is dominated by ice coming from the central and southeastern Laptev Sea. Furthermore, our results imply that years of high ice export in late winter (February to May) have a thinning effect on the ice cover, which in turn preconditions the occurence of negative sea ice extent anomalies in summer.

Description: Secondary microseisms recorded by seismic stations are generated in the ocean by the interaction of ocean gravity waves. We present here the theory for modelling secondary microseismic noise by normal mode summation. We show that the noise sources can be modelled by vertical forces and how to derive them from a realistic ocean wave model. We then show how to compute bathymetry excitation effect in a realistic earth model by using normal modes and a comparison with Longuet–Higgins approach. The strongest excitation areas in the oceans depends on the bathymetry and period and are different for each seismic mode. Seismic noise is then modelled by normal mode summation considering varying bathymetry. We derive an attenuation model that enables to fit well the vertical component spectra whatever the station location. We show that the fundamental mode of Rayleigh waves is the dominant signal in seismic noise. There is a discrepancy between real and synthetic spectra on the horizontal components that enables to estimate the amount of Love waves for which a different source mechanism is needed. Finally, we investigate noise generated in all the oceans around Africa and show that most of noise recorded in Algeria (TAM station) is generated in the Northern Atlantic and that there is a seasonal variability of the contribution of each ocean and sea.

Description: The Observing Air–Sea Interactions Strategy (OASIS) is a new United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development programme working to develop a practical, integrated approach for observing air–sea interactions globally for improved Earth system (including ecosystem) forecasts, CO2 uptake assessments called for by the Paris Agreement, and invaluable surface ocean information for decision makers. Our “Theory of Change” relies upon leveraged multi-disciplinary activities, partnerships, and capacity strengthening. Recommendations from 〉40 OceanObs’19 community papers and a series of workshops have been consolidated into three interlinked Grand Ideas for creating #1: a globally distributed network of mobile air–sea observing platforms built around an expanded array of long-term time-series stations; #2: a satellite network, with high spatial and temporal resolution, optimized for measuring air–sea fluxes; and #3: improved representation of air–sea coupling in a hierarchy of Earth system models. OASIS activities are organized across five Theme Teams: (1) Observing Network Design & Model Improvement; (2) Partnership & Capacity Strengthening; (3) UN Decade OASIS Actions; (4) Best Practices & Interoperability Experiments; and (5) Findable–Accessible–Interoperable–Reusable (FAIR) models, data, and OASIS products. Stakeholders, including researchers, are actively recruited to participate in Theme Teams to help promote a predicted, safe, clean, healthy, resilient, and productive ocean.

Description: Large uncertainties exist on the volume of ice transported by the Southern Ocean large icebergs, a key parameter for climate studies, because of the paucity of information, especially on iceberg thickness. Using icebergs tracks from the National Ice Center (NIC) and Brigham Young University (BYU) databases to select altimeter data over icebergs and a method of analysis of altimeter waveforms, a database of 5366 icebergs freeboard elevation, length and backscatter covering the 2002-2012 period has been created. The database is analyzed in terms of distributions of freeboard, length and backscatter showing differences as a function of the iceberg's quadrant of origin. The database allows to analyze the temporal evolution of icebergs and to estimate a melt rate of 35 to 39 m/yr – 1 (neglecting the firn compaction). The total daily volume of ice, estimated by combining the NIC and altimeter sizes and the altimeter freeboards, regularly decreases from 2.2 10 4 km 3 in 2002 to 0.9 10 4 km 3 in 2012. During this decade, the total loss of ice (~ 1,800km3) is twice as large as than the input (~ 960km 3 ) showing that the system is out of equilibrium after a very large input of ice between 1997 and 2002. Breaking into small icebergs represents 80% (~ 1,500km 3 ) of the total ice loss while basal melting is only 18% (~ 320km 3 ). Small icebergs are thus the major vector of freshwater input in the Southern Ocean. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Basal melting of floating ice shelves and iceberg calving constitute, the two almost equal paths of freshwater flux between the Antarctic, ice cap and the Southern Ocean. The largest icebergs (〉100km 2 ), transport most of the ice volume but their basal melting is small, compared to their breaking into smaller icebergs that constitute thus, the major vector of freshwater. The archives of nine altimeters have, been processed to create a small icebergs (〈8km 2 ) database, of positions, sizes and volumes spanning the 1992-2014 period. The, inter-calibrated monthly ice volumes from the different altimeters, have been merged in an homogeneous 23 year climatology. The iceberg, size distribution, covering the 0.1-10000 km 2 range, estimated, by combining small and large icebergs size measurements follows well, a power law of slope -1.52±0.32 close to the -3/2 laws observed, and modeled for brittle fragmentation. The global volume of ice and, its distribution between the ocean basins present a very strong inter-annual, variability only partially explained by the number of large icebergs., Indeed, vast zones of the Southern Ocean free of large icebergs are, largely populated by small iceberg drifting over thousands of km., The correlation between the global small and large icebergs volumes, shows that small icebergs are mainly generated by large ones breaking., Drifting and trapping by sea ice can transport small icebergs for, long period and distances. Small icebergs act as an ice diffuse process, along large icebergs trajectories while sea ice trapping acts as a, buffer delaying melting. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Secondary microseismic noise is generated by non-linear interactions between ocean waves at the ocean surface. We present here the theory for computing the site effect of the ocean layer upon body waves generated by noise sources distributed along the ocean surface. By defining the wavefield as the superposition of plane waves, we show that the ocean site effect can be described as the constructive interference of multiply reflected P waves in the ocean that are then converted to either P or SV waves at the ocean–crust interface. We observe that the site effect varies strongly with period and ocean depth, although in a different way for body waves than for Rayleigh waves. We also show that the ocean site effect is stronger for P waves than for S waves. We validate our computation by comparing the theoretical noise body wave sources with the sources inferred from beamforming analysis of the three seismogram components recorded by the Southern California Seismic Network. We use rotated traces for the beamforming analysis, and we show that we clearly detect P waves generated by ocean gravity wave interactions along the track of typhoon Ioke (2006 September). We do not detect the corresponding SV waves, and we demonstrate that this is because their amplitude is too weak.

Description: Swells radiating across ocean basins are fingerprints of the large ocean storms that generated them, which are otherwise poorly observed. Here we analyze the signature of one swell event in the seismic noise recorded all around the Pacific and we show that it is a natural complement to the global coverage provided by the Synthetic Aperture Radar wave mode data from ENVISAT. In particular the seismic stations are much more sensitive to low frequency and amplitude signals than buoys and SAR, capturing swell forerunners a couple of days before they can be detected from space or in situ data. This information helps detect in the SAR measurements the presence of very long swell, with periods of 22 s in our case example, that were otherwise excluded.

Description: Secondary microseism sources are pressure fluctuations close to the ocean surface. They generate acoustic P waves that propagate in water down to the ocean bottom where they are partly reflected and partly transmitted into the crust to continue their propagation through the Earth. We present the theory for computing the displacement power spectral density of secondary microseism P waves recorded by receivers in the far field. In the frequency domain, the P -wave displacement can be modeled as the product of (1) the pressure source, (2) the source site effect that accounts for the constructive interference of multiply reflected P waves in the ocean, (3) the propagation from the ocean bottom to the stations and (4) the receiver site effect. Secondary microseism P waves have weak amplitudes, but they can be investigated by beamforming analysis. We validate our approach by analysing the seismic signals generated by typhoon Ioke (2006) and recorded by the Southern California Seismic Network. Backprojecting the beam onto the ocean surface enables to follow the source motion. The observed beam centroid is in the vicinity of the pressure source derived from the ocean wave model WAVEWATCH III R . The pressure source is then used for modeling the beam and a good agreement is obtained between measured and modeled beam amplitude variation over time. This modeling approach can be used to invert P -wave noise data and retrieve the source intensity and lateral extent.