Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Climate Change 2 (2012): 161-166, doi:10.1038/nclimate1353.
Description:
Subtropical western boundary currents are warm, fast flowing currents that
form on the western side of ocean basins. They carry warm tropical water to the
mid-latitudes and vent large amounts of heat and moisture to the atmosphere
along their paths, affecting atmospheric jet streams and mid-latitude storms, as
well as ocean carbon uptake. The possibility that these highly energetic and
nonlinear currents might change under greenhouse gas forcing has raised
significant concerns, but detecting such changes is challenging owing to limited
observations. Here, using reconstructed sea surface temperature datasets and
newly developed century-long ocean and atmosphere reanalysis products, we
find that the post-1900 surface ocean warming rate over the path of these
currents is two to three times faster than the global mean surface ocean warming
rate. The accelerated warming is associated with a synchronous poleward shift
and/or intensification of global subtropical western boundary currents in
conjunction with a systematic change in winds over both hemispheres. This enhanced warming may reduce ocean's ability to absorb anthropogenic carbon
dioxide over these regions. However, uncertainties in detection and attribution of
these warming trends remain, pointing to a need for a long-term monitoring
network of the global western boundary currents and their extensions.
Description:
This work is supported by China National Key Basic Research Project
(2007CB411800) and National Natural Science Foundation Projects (40788002,
40921004). WC is supported by the Australian Climate Change Science program and
the Southeast Australia Climate Initiative. HN is supported in part by the Japanese
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology through Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas #2205 and by the Japanese Ministry of
Environment through Global Environment Research Fund (S-5). MJM is supported by
NOAA’s Climate Program Office.
Description:
2012-07-29
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
