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  • 1
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 122 (4). 2830-2846 .
    Publication Date: 2020-02-06
    Description: The upstream sources and pathways of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water and their variability have been investigated using a high-resolution model hindcast. This global simulation covers the period from 1948 to 2009 and uses a fine model mesh (1/20°) to resolve mesoscale features and the complex current structure north of Iceland explicitly. The three sources of the Denmark Strait Overflow, the shelfbreak East Greenland Current (EGC), the separated EGC, and the North Icelandic Jet, have been analyzed using Eulerian and Lagrangian diagnostics. The shelfbreak EGC contributes the largest fraction in terms of volume and freshwater transport to the Denmark Strait Overflow and is the main driver of the overflow variability. The North Icelandic Jet contributes the densest water to the Denmark Strait Overflow and shows only small temporal transport variations. During summer, the net volume and freshwater transports to the south are reduced. On interannual time scales, these transports are highly correlated with the large-scale wind stress curl around Iceland and, to some extent, influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation, with enhanced southward transports during positive phases. The Lagrangian trajectories support the existence of a hypothesized overturning loop along the shelfbreak north of Iceland, where water carried by the North Icelandic Irminger Current is transformed and feeds the North Icelandic Jet. Monitoring these two currents and the region north of the Iceland shelfbreak could provide the potential to track long-term changes in the Denmark Strait Overflow and thus also the AMOC.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: Decadal variabilities in Indian Ocean subsurface ocean heat content (OHC; 50–300 m) since the 1950s are examined using ocean reanalyses. This study elaborates on how Pacific variability modulates the Indian Ocean on decadal time scales through both oceanic and atmospheric pathways. High correlations between OHC and thermocline depth variations across the entire Indian Ocean Basin suggest that OHC variability is primarily driven by thermocline fluctuations. The spatial pattern of the leading mode of decadal Indian Ocean OHC variability closely matches the regression pattern of OHC on the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), emphasizing the role of the Pacific Ocean in determining Indian Ocean OHC decadal variability. Further analyses identify different mechanisms by which the Pacific influences the eastern and western Indian Ocean. IPO-related anomalies from the Pacific propagate mainly through oceanic pathways in the Maritime Continent to impact the eastern Indian Ocean. By contrast, in the western Indian Ocean, the IPO induces wind-driven Ekman pumping in the central Indian Ocean via the atmospheric bridge, which in turn modifies conditions in the southwestern Indian Ocean via westward-propagating Rossby waves. To confirm this, a linear Rossby wave model is forced with wind stresses and eastern boundary conditions based on reanalyses. This linear model skillfully reproduces observed sea surface height anomalies and highlights both the oceanic connection in the eastern Indian Ocean and the role of wind-driven Ekman pumping in the west. These findings are also reproduced by OGCM hindcast experiments forced by interannual atmospheric boundary conditions applied only over the Pacific and Indian Oceans, respectively.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 3
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 123 (2). pp. 1471-1484.
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: The variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) may play a role in sea surface temperature predictions on seasonal to decadal time scales. Therefore, AMOC seasonal cycles are a potential baseline for interpreting predictions. Here we present estimates for the seasonal cycle of transports of volume, temperature, and freshwater associated with the upper limb of the AMOC in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic on the Extended Ellett Line hydrographic section between Scotland and Iceland. Due to weather, ship‐based observations are primarily in summer. Recent glider observations during other seasons present an opportunity to investigate the seasonal variability in the upper layer of the AMOC. First, we document a new method to quality control and merge ship, float, and glider hydrographic observations. This method accounts for the different spatial sampling rates of the three platforms. The merged observations are used to compute seasonal cycles of volume, temperature, and freshwater transports in the Rockall Trough. These estimates are similar to the seasonal cycles in two eddy‐resolving ocean models. Volume transport appears to be the primary factor modulating other Rockall Trough transports. Finally, we show that the weakest transports occur in summer, consistent with seasonal changes in the regional‐scale wind stress curl. Although the seasonal cycle is weak compared to other variability in this region, the amplitude of the seasonal cycle in the Rockall Trough, roughly 0.5–1 Sv about a mean of 3.4 Sv, may account for up to 7–14% of the heat flux between Scotland and Greenland.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: Benthic storms are important for both the energy budget of the ocean and for sediment resuspension and transport. Using 30 years of output from a high-resolution model of the North Atlantic, it is found that most of the benthic storms in the model occur near the western boundary in association with the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current, in regions that are generally co-located with the peak near-bottom eddy kinetic energy. A common feature are meander troughs in the near-surface jets that are accompanied by deep low pressure anomalies spinning up deep cyclones with near-bottom velocities of up to more than 0.5 m/s. A case study of one of these events shows the importance of both baroclinic and barotropic instability of the jet, with energy being extracted from the jet in the upstream part of the meander trough and partly returned to the jet in the downstream part of the meander trough. This motivates examining the 30-year time mean of the energy transfer from the (annual mean) background flow into the eddy kinetic energy. This quantity is shown to be co-located well with the region in which benthic storms and large increases in deep cyclonic relative vorticity occur most frequently, suggesting an important role for mixed barotropic-baroclinic instability driven cyclogenesis in generating benthic storms throughout the model simulation. Regions of largest energy transfer and most frequent benthic storms are found to be the Gulf Stream west of the New England Seamounts and the North Atlantic Current near Flemish Cap.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: We analyze the contribution of the Agulhas Current on the central water masses of the Benguela upwelling system (BUS) over the last decades in a high-resolution ocean simulation driven by atmospheric reanalysis. The BUS is an Eastern Boundary Upwelling System where upwelling of cold nutrient-rich water favors biomass growth. The two distinct subregions, North and South Benguela, differ in nutrient and oxygen properties of the upwelling water mass. Our analysis indicates that the contribution of Agulhas water to the upwelling is very strong in both subregions. Although the water masses feeding the upwelling have a common origin, their pathways are distinct in both regions. Whereas for the central waters of South Benguela the path is rather direct from where it is formed, the central waters of North Benguela takes a longer route through the equatorial current system. Not only the travel time from the Agulhas Current to the BUS is longer but also the central water mass is twice as old for the northern part when compared to the southern. Our analysis traces the pathways, history, and origin of the central water masses feeding upwelling in the BUS and emphasizes the direct impact of the Agulhas Current on the upwelling region. The variability of that link between the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic is likely to change the nutrient and oxygen content, as well as temperature and salinity of the water masses in the upwelling region.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 6
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Geophysical Research Letters, 43 . pp. 4517-4523.
    Publication Date: 2019-02-26
    Description: The response of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) to the strengthening of Southern Hemisphere winds occurring since the 1950s is investigated with a global ocean model having a resolution of 1/12° in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current domain. The simulations expose regional differences in the relative importance of stochastic and wind-related contributions to inter-annual EKE changes. In the Pacific and Indian sectors the model captures the EKE variability observed since 1993 and confirms previous hypotheses of a lagged response to regional wind stress anomalies. Here, the multi-decadal trend in wind stress is reflected in an increase in EKE typically exceeding 5 cm2 sec-2 decade-1. In the western Atlantic EKE variability is mostly stochastic, is weakly correlated with wind fluctuations, and its multi-decadal trends are close to zero. The non-uniform distribution of wind-related changes in the eddy activity could affect the regional patterns of ocean circulation and biogeochemical responses to future climate change.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 7
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 8 (2). pp. 904-916.
    Publication Date: 2019-07-17
    Description: If unstructured meshes are refined to locally represent eddy dynamics in ocean circulation models, a practical question arises on how to vary the resolution and where to deploy the refinement. We propose to use the observed sea surface height variability as the refinement criterion. We explore the utility of this method (i) in a suite of idealized experiments simulating a wind-driven double gyre flow in a stratified circular basin and (ii) in simulations of global ocean circulation performed with FESOM. Two practical approaches of mesh refinement are compared. In the first approach the uniform refinement is confined within the areas where the observed variability exceeds a given threshold. In the second one the refinement varies linearly following the observed variability. The resolution is fixed in time. For the double gyre case it is shown that the variability obtained in a high-resolution reference run can be well captured on variable-resolution meshes if they are refined where the variability is high and additionally upstream the jet separation point. The second approach of mesh refinement proves to be more beneficial in terms of improvement downstream the midlatitude jet. Similarly, in global ocean simulations the mesh refinement based on the observed variability helps the model to simulate high variability at correct locations. The refinement also leads to a reduced bias in the upper-ocean temperature
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2020-02-06
    Description: The Indian Ocean has sustained robust surface warming in recent decades, but the role of multi-decadal variability remains unclear. Using ocean model hindcasts, characteristics of low-frequency Indian Ocean temperature variations are explored. Simulated upper-ocean temperature changes across the Indian Ocean in the hindcast are consistent with those recorded in observational products and ocean reanalyses. Indian Ocean temperatures exhibit strong warming trends since the 1950s limited to the surface and south of 30°S, while extensive subsurface cooling occurs over much of the tropical Indian Ocean. Previous work focused on diagnosing causes of these long-term trends in the Indian Ocean over the second half of the 20th Century. Instead, the temporal evolution of Indian Ocean subsurface heat content is shown here to reveal distinct multi-decadal variations associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the long-term trends are thus interpreted to result from aliasing of the low-frequency variability. Transmission of the multi-decadal signal occurs via an oceanic pathway through the Indonesian Throughflow and is manifest across the Indian Ocean centered along 12°S as westward propagating Rossby waves modulating thermocline and subsurface heat content variations. Resulting low-frequency changes in the eastern Indian Ocean thermocline depth are associated with decadal variations in the frequency of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events, with positive IOD events unusually common in the 1960s and 1990s with a relatively shallow thermocline. In contrast, the deeper thermocline depth in the 1970s and 1980s is associated with frequent negative IOD and rare positive IOD events. Changes in Pacific wind forcing in recent decades and associated rapid increases in Indian Ocean subsurface heat content can thus affect the basin’s leading mode of variability, with implications for regional climate and vulnerable societies in surrounding countries.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 9
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    AMS (American Meteorological Society)
    In:  Journal of Climate, 28 (24). pp. 9697-9706.
    Publication Date: 2020-08-04
    Description: The upper tropical Atlantic Ocean has markedly warmed since the 1960s. It has been shown that this warming was not due to local heat fluxes, and that the trade winds that drive the coastal and equatorial upwelling have intensified rather than weakened. Remote forcing might thus have played an important role. Here model experiments are used to investigate the contribution from an increased inflow of warm Indian Ocean water through Agulhas leakage. A high-resolution hindcast experiment with interannually varying forcing for the time period 1948 to 2007, in which Agulhas leakage increases by about 45% from the 1960s to the early 2000s, reproduces the observed warming trend. To tease out the role of Agulhas leakage, a sensitivity experiment designed to only increase Agulhas leakage is used. Compared to a control simulation it shows a pronounced warming in the upper tropical Atlantic Ocean. A Lagrangian trajectory analysis confirms that a significant portion of Agulhas leakage water reaches the upper 300m of the tropical Atlantic Ocean within two decades, and that the tropical Atlantic warming in the sensitivity experiment is mainly due to water of Agulhas origin. Therefore, it is suggested that the increased trade winds since the 1960s favor upwelling of warmer subsurface waters, which in parts originate from the Agulhas, leading to higher SSTs in the tropics
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 10
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 122 (4). pp. 3481-3499.
    Publication Date: 2020-02-06
    Description: We examine the mean pathways, transit timescales, and transformation of waters flowing from the Pacific and the marginal seas through the Indian Ocean (IO) on their way toward the South Atlantic within a high-resolution ocean/sea-ice model. The model fields are analyzed from a Lagrangian perspective where water volumes are tracked as they enter the IO. The IO contributes 12.6 Sv to Agulhas leakage, which within the model is 14.1 ± 2.2 Sv, the rest originates from the South Atlantic. The Indonesian Through-flow constitutes about half of the IO contribution, is surface bound, cools and salinificates as it leaves the basin within 10–30 years. Waters entering the IO south of Australia are at intermediate depths and maintain their temperature-salinity properties as they exit the basin within 15–35 years. Of these waters, the contribution from Tasman leakage is 1.4 Sv. The rest stem from recirculation from the frontal regions of the Southern Ocean. The marginal seas export 1.0 Sv into the Atlantic within 15–40 years, and the waters cool and freshen on-route. However, the model's simulation of waters from the Gulfs of Aden and Oman are too light and hence overly influenced by upper ocean circulations. In the Cape Basin, Agulhas leakage is well mixed. On-route, temperature-salinity transformations occur predominantly in the Arabian Sea and within the greater Agulhas Current region. Overall, the IO exports at least 7.9 Sv from the Pacific to the Atlantic, thereby quantifying the strength of the upper cell of the global conveyor belt.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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