Description: Ocean observations carried out in the framework of the Collaborative Research Center 754 (SFB 754) "Climate-Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean" are used to study (1) the structure of tropical oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), (2) the processes that contribute to the oxygen budget, and (3) long-term changes in the oxygen distribution. The OMZ of the eastern tropical North Atlantic (ETNA), located between the well-ventilated subtropical gyre and the equatorial oxygen maximum, is composed of a deep OMZ at about 400 m depth with its core region centred at about 20° W, 10° N and a shallow OMZ at about 100 m depth with lowest oxygen concentrations in proximity to the coastal upwelling region off Mauritania and Senegal. The oxygen budget of the deep OMZ is given by oxygen consumption mainly balanced by the oxygen supply due to meridional eddy fluxes (about 60%) and vertical mixing (about 20%, locally up to 30%). Advection by zonal jets is crucial for the establishment of the equatorial oxygen maximum. In the latitude range of the deep OMZ, it dominates the oxygen supply in the upper 300 to 400 m and generates the intermediate oxygen maximum between deep and shallow OMZs. Water mass ages from transient tracers indicate substantially older water masses in the core of the deep OMZ (about 120–180 years) compared to regions north and south of it. The deoxygenation of the ETNA OMZ during recent decades suggests a substantial imbalance in the oxygen budget: about 10% of the oxygen consumption during that period was not balanced by ventilation. Long-term oxygen observations show variability on interannual, decadal and multidecadal time scales that can partly be attributed to circulation changes. In comparison to the ETNA OMZ the eastern tropical South Pacific OMZ shows a similar structure including an equatorial oxygen maximum driven by zonal advection, but overall much lower oxygen concentrations approaching zero in extended regions. As the shape of the OMZs is set by ocean circulation, the widespread misrepresentation of the intermediate circulation in ocean circulation models substantially contributes to their oxygen bias, which might have significant impacts on predictions of future oxygen levels.

Description: An ocean circulation model is run using two different idealized equatorial basin configurations under steady wind forcing. Both model versions produce bands of vertically alternating zonal flow at depth, similar to observed Equatorial Deep Jets (EDJs) and with a time scale corresponding to that of the gravest equatorial basin mode for the dominant baroclinic vertical normal mode. Both model runs show evidence for enhanced variability in the surface signature of the North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) with the same time scale. We also find the same link between the observed NECC and the EDJs in the Atlantic by comparing the signature of the EDJ in moored zonal velocity data at 23° W on the equator with the signature of the NECC in geostrophic velocities from altimeter data. We argue that the presence of a peak in variability in the NECC associated with the EDJ basin mode period is evidence that the influenceatthis time scale is upward, from the EDJ to the NECC

Description: Equatorial deep jets (EDJs) are a prominent flow feature of the equatorial Atlantic below the Equatorial Undercurrent down to about 3000 m. Here we analyze long-term moored velocity and oxygen observations, as well as shipboard hydrographic and current sections acquired along 23{degree sign}W and covering the depth range of the oxygen minimum zones of the eastern tropical North and South Atlantic. The moored zonal velocity data show high-baroclinic mode EDJ oscillations at a period of about 4.5 years. Equatorial oxygen observations which do not resolve or cover a full 4.5-yr EDJ cycle nevertheless reveal large variability, with oxygen concentrations locally spanning a range of more than 60 μmol kg−1. We study the effect of EDJs on the equatorial oxygen concentration by forcing an advection-diffusion model with the velocity field of the gravest equatorial basin mode corresponding to the observed EDJ cycle. The advection-diffusion model includes an oxygen source at the western boundary and oxygen consumption elsewhere. The model produces a 4.5-yr cycle of the oxygen concentration and a temporal phase difference between oxygen concentration and eastward velocity that is less than quadrature, implying a net eastward oxygen flux. The comparison of available observations and basin-mode simulations indicates that a substantial part of the observed oxygen variability at the equator can be explained by EDJ oscillations. The respective role of mean advection, EDJs, and other possible processes in shaping the mean oxygen distribution of the equatorial Atlantic at intermediate depth is discussed. Key Points: - Equatorial Deep Jets strongly affect oxygen distribution/variability - Mean oxygen ditribution in the equatorial Atlantic at intermediate depth - Gravest equatorial basin mode forces an advection-diffusion model

Description: METEOR cruise 80/1 was a contribution to the SFB 754 “Climate-Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean”. Shipboard, glider and moored observations are used to study the temporal and spatial variability of physical and biogeochemical parameters within the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the tropical North Atlantic. As part of the BMBF “Nordatlantik” project, it further focuses on the equatorial current system including the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and intermediate currents below. During the cruise, hydrographic station observations were performed using a CTD/O2 rosette, including water sampling for salinity, oxygen, nutrients and other biogeochemical tracers. Underway current measurements were successfully carried out with the 75 kHz ADCP borrowed from R/V POSEIDON during the first part of the cruise, and R/V METEOR’s 38 kHz ADCP during the second part. During M80/1, an intensive mooring program was carried out with 8 mooring recoveries and 8 mooring deployments. Right at the beginning of the cruise, a multidisciplinary mooring near the Cape Verde Islands was recovered and redeployed. Within the framework of SFB 754, two moorings with CTD/O2 profilers were recovered and redeployed with other instrumentation in the center and at the southern rim of the OMZ of the tropical North Atlantic. The equatorial mooring array as part of BMBF “North Atlantic” project consists of 5 current meter moorings along 23°W between 2°S and 2°N. It is aimed at quantifying the variability of the thermocline water supply toward the equatorial cold tongue which develops east of 10°W during boreal summer. Several glider missions were performed during the cruise. One glider was recovered that was deployed two months earlier. Another glider was deployed for two short term missions, near the equator for about 8 days and near 8°N for one day. This glider was equipped with a new microstructure probe in addition to standard sensors, i.e. CTD/O2, chlorophyll and turbidity.

Description: The equatorial deep jets (EDJ) are a striking feature of the equatorial ocean circulation. In the Atlantic Ocean, the EDJ are associated with a vertical scale of between 300 and 700 m, a time scale of roughly 4.5 years and upward energy propagation to the surface and thus are contributing to the interannual climate variability in the equatorial Atlantic region. However, it has been found that the meridional width of the EDJ is roughly 1.5 times larger than expected based on their vertical scale. Here a representation of a equatorial basin mode excited in a shallow water model for a single high order baroclinic vertical normal mode is used as a simple model for the EDJ. The model is linearised about both a state of rest and a barotropic mean flow resembling the Atlantic Equatorial Intermediate Current System with eastward flow at roughly 2◦ N and 2◦ S and westward flow in between and poleward of it. We argue that mixing of momentum along isopycnals can explain the enhanced width and a lateral eddy viscosity of 300 m^2 s−1 is found to be sufficient to account for the width implied by observations. The underlying eastward mean flow effectively shields the equator from off-equatorial Rossby waves, blocking the westward propagation of these waves that are generated by the reflection of equatorial Kelvin waves at the eastern boundary.