Description: Oceanographic observations from the Eurasian Basin north of Svalbard collected between January and June 2015 from the N-ICE2015 drifting expedition are presented. The unique winter observations are a key contribution to existing climatologies of the Arctic Ocean, and show a ∼100 m deep winter mixed layer likely due to high sea ice growth rates in local leads. Current observations for the upper ∼200 m show mostly a barotropic flow, enhanced over the shallow Yermak Plateau. The two branches of inflowing Atlantic Water are partly captured, confirming that the outer Yermak Branch follows the perimeter of the plateau, and the inner Svalbard Branch the coast. Atlantic Water observed to be warmer and shallower than in the climatology, is found directly below the mixed layer down to 800 m depth, and is warmest along the slope, while its properties inside the basin are quite homogeneous. From late May onwards, the drift was continually close to the ice edge and a thinner surface mixed layer and shallower Atlantic Water coincided with significant sea ice melt being observed.

Description: The supply of oxygen-rich water to the oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) of the eastern North and South Pacific via zonal tropical currents is investigated using shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler and hydrographic section data. Near the equator, the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), Northern and Southern Subsurface Countercurrents (SCCs), and the Northern and Southern Intermediate Countercurrents (ICCs) all carry water that is oxygen richer than adjacent westward flows, thereby providing a net oxygen supply to the eastern Pacific OMZs. The synoptic velocity-weighted oxygen concentration difference between eastward and westward flows is typically 10–50 μmol kg−1. Subthermocline zonal oxygen fluxes reflect decreasing oxygen concentrations of the EUC, the SCCs, and the ICCs as they flow eastward. Approximately 30 year time series in well-sampled regions of the equatorial Pacific show oxygen content decreasing as rapidly as −0.55 μmol kg−1 yr−1 in the major oxygen supply paths of the OMZs for a 200–700 m layer and similar trends for a density layer spanning roughly these depths. This finding is in gross agreement with climate models, which generally predict expanding OMZs.

Description: During the CINDY–DYNAMO field campaign of September 2011–January 2012, a Seaglider was deployed at 80°E and completed 10 north-south sections between 3 and 4°S, measuring temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration, and chlorophyll fluorescence. These high-resolution subsurface observations provide insight into equatorial ocean Rossby wave activity forced by three Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) events during this time period. These Rossby waves generate variability in temperature O(1°C), salinity O(0.2 g kg−1), density O(0.2 kg m−3), and oxygen concentration O(10 μmol kg−1), associated with 10 m vertical displacements of the thermocline. The variability extends down to 1000 m, the greatest depth of the Seaglider observations, highlighting the importance of surface forcing for the deep equatorial ocean. The temperature variability observed by the Seaglider is greater than that simulated in the ECCO-JPL reanalysis, especially at depth. There is also marked variability in chlorophyll fluorescence at the surface and at the depth of the chlorophyll maximum. Upwelling from Rossby waves and local wind stress curl leads to an enhanced shoaling of the chlorophyll maximum by 10–25 m in response to the increased availability of nutrients and light. This influence of the MJO on primary production via equatorial ocean Rossby waves has not previously been recognized.

Description: Temperature and salinity both contribute to ocean density, including its seasonal cycle and spatial patterns in the mixed layer. Temperature and salinity profiles from the Argo Program allow construction and analysis of a global, monthly, mixed layer climatology. Temperature changes dominate the seasonal cycle of mixed layer density in most regions, but salinity changes are dominant in the tropical warm pools, Arctic, and Antarctic. Under the Intertropical Convergence Zone, temperature and salinity work in concert to increase seasonal stratification, but the seasonal density changes there are weak because the temperature and salinity changes are small. In the eastern subtropics, seasonal salinity changes partly compensate those in temperature and reduce seasonal mixed layer density changes. Besides a hemispheric seasonal reversal, the times of maximum and minimum mixed layer density exhibit regional variations. For instance, the equatorial region is more closely aligned with Southern Hemisphere timing, and much of the North Indian Ocean has a minimum density in May and June. Outside of the tropics, the maximum mixed layer density occurs later in the winter toward the poles, and the minimum earlier in the summer. Finally, at the times of maximum mixed layer density, some of the ocean has horizontal temperature and salinity gradients that work against each other to reduce the horizontal density gradient. However, on the equatorial sides of the subtropical salinity maxima, temperature and salinity gradients reinforce each other, increasing the density gradients there. Density gradients are generally stronger where either salinity or temperature gradients are dominant influences.

Description: The oceanic mixed-layer is the gateway for the exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean; in this layer all hydrographic ocean properties are set for months to millennia. A vast area of the Southern Ocean is seasonally capped by sea-ice, which alters the characteristics of the ocean mixed-layer. The interaction between the ocean mixed-layer and sea-ice plays a key role for water-mass transformation, the carbon cycle, sea-ice dynamics, and ultimately for the climate as a whole. However, the structure and characteristics of the under-ice mixed-layer are poorly understood due to the sparseness of in-situ observations and measurements. In this study, we combine distinct sources of observations to overcome this lack in our understanding of the Polar Regions. Working with Elephant Seal-derived observations, ship-based and Argo float observations, we describe the seasonal cycle of the ocean mixed-layer characteristics and stability of the ocean mixed-layer over the Southern Ocean and specifically under sea-ice. Mixed-layer heat and freshwater budgets are used to investigate the main forcing mechanisms of the mixed-layer seasonal cycle. The seasonal variability of sea surface salinity and temperature are primarily driven by surface processes, dominated by sea-ice freshwater flux for the salt budget, and by air-sea flux for the heat budget. Ekman advection, vertical diffusivity and vertical entrainment play only secondary roles.Our results suggest that changes in regional sea-ice distribution and annual duration, as currently observed, widely affect the buoyancy budget of the underlying mixed-layer, and impact large-scale water-mass formation and transformation with far reaching consequences for ocean ventilation.

Description: Production and dispersion of coccolithophores are assessed within their ecologic and hydrographic context across enhanced spring chlorophyll production in the surface eastern North Atlantic. Within a 4 day period from 12 to 16 March 2004, a N-S transect from 47 degrees N to 33 degrees N was sampled along 20 degrees W. Water samples from defined depths down to 200 m were analyzed for coccolithophores from 0.45 mu m polycarbonate filters by scanning electron microscopy. At 47 degrees N coccolithophores flourished when euphotic conditions allowed new production at deep mixing, low temperatures, and high nutrient concentrations. Emiliania huxleyi flourished at high turbulence during an early stage of the phytoplankton succession and contributed half of the total coccolithophore assemblage, with up to 150 x 10(3) cells L(-1) and up to 12 x 10(9) cells m(-2) when integrated over the upper 200 m of the water column. Maximum chlorophyll concentrations occurred just north of the Azores Front, at 37 degrees N-39 degrees N, at comparatively low numbers of coccolithophores. To the south, at 35 degrees N-33 degrees N, coccolithophores were abundant within calm and stratified Subtropical Mode Waters, and E. huxleyi was the dominant species again. Although the cell densities of coccolithophores observed here remained below those typical of plankton blooms visible from satellite images, the depth-integrated total mass makes them significant producers of calcite and contributors to the total carbon sedimentation at a much wider range of ecological conditions during late winter and early spring than hitherto assumed.

Description: In the northeastern tropical Atlantic, a region of high potential vorticity (PV) determines the size of the exchange window for the interior thermocline flow of the subtropical cell via its variations in strength and extent. Variability of this PV barrier has the potential to impact the ventilation of the tropical Atlantic on decadal timescales. Here, the impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the PV barrier related to isopycnals within the thermocline of the subtropical-tropical Atlantic Ocean is assessed from Argo observations for the time period of 2006-2022. Relative to the negative NAO phase (2009-2010), during the positive NAO phase (2014-2019), the North Atlantic subtropical high and the northeast trades are intensified. Satellite-derived wind stress curl shows increased upwelling/downwelling on the equatorward/poleward side of the trade wind zone, respectively. In the subtropical-tropical Atlantic, a symmetric pattern of isopycnal heave is observed: rising isopycnals within 20 degrees N and 20 degrees S and sinking poleward of that. With rising isopycnals, the PV barrier in the northeastern tropical Atlantic becomes stronger. Analyses of geostrophic velocities and the Sverdrup streamfunction show that during the positive NAO phase there are increased equatorward velocities at thermocline level along the western boundary and reduced velocities through the interior as a result of intensified northeast trades and therefore a strengthened PV barrier. Intensified trades lead to enhanced subduction of thermocline waters and, independent of that, to a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent transport as observed at the mooring site at 0 degrees, 23 degrees W, likely via the pulling effect of the subtropical cells. In the North Atlantic Ocean, subducted water from the subtropics has two possible pathways within the thermocline toward the equatorial region: the interior pathway and the pathway along the western boundary. The size of the exchange window between subtropics and tropics depends on the extent of a barrier zone in the eastern part of the basin that is associated with wind-driven upwelling of density surfaces. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the dominant atmospheric climate mode in the North Atlantic and in this study, we show how the NAO impacts the barrier for the equatorward thermocline flow in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. During positive NAO phases (e.g., 2014-2019), density surfaces become shallower and strengthen the barrier, while during negative NAO phases (e.g., 2009-2010) the barrier weakens. Geostrophic velocity analysis reveals that during positive NAO phases more thermocline water is transported equatorward via the western boundary and less via the interior pathway. Additionally, observations from a mooring site at 0 degrees, 23 degrees W show stronger Equatorial Undercurrent transport as a result of intensified trade winds during positive NAO phases. Trade winds in the northeastern tropical Atlantic strengthen during positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO+) Potential vorticity barrier for the interior equatorward thermocline flow of the North Atlantic Subtropical Cell strengthens during NAO+ Annual subduction of thermocline water and Equatorial Undercurrent transport increase simultaneously from 2008 to 2018

Description: The Atlantic Subtropical Cells (STCs) are shallow wind‐driven overturning circulations connecting the tropical upwelling areas to the subtropical subduction regions. In both hemispheres they are characterized by equatorward transport at thermocline level, upwelling at the equator and poleward Ekman transport in the surface layer. This study uses recent data from Argo oats complemented by ship sections at the western boundary as well as reanalysis products to estimate the meridional water mass transports and to investigate the vertical and horizontal structure of the STCs from an observational perspective. The seasonally varying depth of meridional velocity reversal is used as the interface between the surface poleward ow and the thermocline equatorward ow. The latter is bounded by the 26.0 kg m‐3 isopycnal at depth. We find that the thermocline layer convergence is dominated by the southern hemisphere water mass transport (9.0 ±1.1 Sv from the southern hemisphere compared to 2.9 ±1.3 Sv from the northern hemisphere) and that this transport is mostly confined to the western boundary. Compared to the asymmetric convergence at thermocline level, the wind‐driven Ekman divergence in the surface layer is more symmetric, being 20.4 ±3.1 Sv between 10°N and 10°S. The net poleward transports (Ekman minus geostrophy) in the surface layer concur with values derived from reanalysis data (5.5 ±0.8 Sv at 10°S and 6.4 ±1.4 Sv at 10°N). A diapycnal transport of about 4 Sv across the 26.0 kg m‐3 isopycnal is required in order to maintain the mass balance in the STC circulation.

Description: The Weddell Gyre (WG) is one of the main oceanographic features of the Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which plays an influential role in global ocean circulation as well as gas exchange with the atmosphere. We review the state‐of‐the art knowledge concerning the WG from an interdisciplinary perspective, uncovering critical aspects needed to understand this system's role in shaping the future evolution of oceanic heat and carbon uptake over the next decades. The main limitations in our knowledge are related to the conditions in this extreme and remote environment, where the polar night, very low air temperatures, and presence of sea ice year‐round hamper field and remotely sensed measurements. We highlight the importance of winter and under‐ice conditions in the southern WG, the role that new technology will play to overcome present‐day sampling limitations, the importance of the WG connectivity to the low‐latitude oceans and atmosphere, and the expected intensification of the WG circulation as the westerly winds intensify. Greater international cooperation is needed to define key sampling locations that can be visited by any research vessel in the region. Existing transects sampled since the 1980s along the Prime Meridian and along an East‐West section at ~62°S should be maintained with regularity to provide answers to the relevant questions. This approach will provide long‐term data to determine trends and will improve representation of processes for regional, Antarctic‐wide, and global modeling efforts—thereby enhancing predictions of the WG in global ocean circulation and climate.