ALBERT

Description: Multiyear moored velocity observations of the Angola Current near 11°S reveal a weak southward mean flow superimposed by substantial intraseasonal to seasonal variability, including annual and semiannual cycles with distinct baroclinic structures. In the equatorial Atlantic these oscillations are associated with basin-mode resonances of the fourth and second baroclinic modes, respectively. Here, the role of basin-mode resonance and local forcing for the Angola Current seasonality is investigated. A suite of linear shallow-water models for the tropical Atlantic is employed, each model representing a single baroclinic mode forced at a specific period. The annually and semiannually oscillating forcing is given by 1) an idealized zonally uniform zonal forcing restricted to the equatorial band corresponding to a remote equatorial forcing or 2) realistic, spatially varying Fourier components of wind stress data that include local forcing off Angola, particularly alongshore winds. Model-computed modal amplitudes are scaled to match moored velocity observations from the equatorial Atlantic. The observed annual cycle of alongshore velocity at 11°S is well reproduced by the remote equatorial forcing. Including local forcing slightly improves the agreement between observed and simulated semiannual oscillations at 11°S compared to the purely equatorial forcing. However, the model-computed semiannual cycle lacks amplitude at middepth. This could be the result of either underestimating the strength of the second equatorial basin mode of the fourth baroclinic mode or other processes not accounted for in the shallow-water models. Overall, the findings underline the importance of large-scale linear equatorial wave dynamics for the seasonal variability of the boundary circulation off Angola.

Description: The distribution of the mean oceanic oxygen concentration results from a balance between ventilation and consumption. In the eastern tropical Pacific and Atlantic, this balance creates extended oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) at intermediate depth. Here, we analyze hydrographic and velocity data from shipboard and moored observations, which were taken along the 23°W meridian cutting through the Tropical North East Atlantic (TNEA) OMZ, to study the distribution and generation of oxygen variability. By applying the extended Osborn-Cox model, the respective role of mesoscale stirring and diapycnal mixing in producing enhanced oxygen variability, found at the southern and upper boundary of the OMZ, is quantified. From the well-ventilated equatorial region toward the OMZ core a northward eddy-driven oxygen flux is observed whose divergence corresponds to an oxygen supply of about 2.4 µmol kg-1 year-1 at the OMZ core depth. Above the OMZ core, mesoscale eddies act to redistribute low- and high-oxygen waters associated with westward and eastward currents, respectively. Here, absolute values of the local oxygen supply 〉10 mmol kg-1 year-1 are found, likely balanced by mean zonal advection. Combining our results with recent studies, a refined oxygen budget for the TNEA OMZ is derived. Eddy-driven meridional oxygen supply contributes more than 50 % of the supply required to balance the estimated oxygen consumption. The oxygen tendency in the OMZ, as given by the multidecadal oxygen decline, is maximum slightly above the OMZ core and represents a substantial imbalance of the oxygen budget reaching about 20 % of the magnitude of the eddy-driven oxygen supply.

Description: The formation of a subsurface anticyclonic eddy in the Peru-Chile Undercurrent (PCUC) in January and February 2013 is investigated using a multi-platform four-dimensional observational approach. Research vessel, multiple glider and mooring-based measurements were conducted in the Peruvian upwelling regime near 12°30'S. The dataset consists of more than 10000 glider profiles and repeated vessel-based hydrography and velocity transects. It allows a detailed description of the eddy formation and its impact on the near-coastal salinity, oxygen and nutrient distributions. In early January, a strong PCUC with maximum poleward velocities of ca. 0.25 m/s at 100 to 200 m depth was observed. Starting on January 20 a subsurface anticyclonic eddy developed in the PCUC downstream of a topographic bend, suggesting flow separation as the eddy formation mechanism. The eddy core waters exhibited oxygen concentrations less than 1mol/kg, an elevated nitrogen-deficit of ca. 17µmol/l and potential vorticity close to zero, which seemed to originate from the bottom boundary layer of the continental slope. The eddy-induced across-shelf velocities resulted in an elevated exchange of water masses between the upper continental slope and the open ocean. Small scale salinity and oxygen structures were formed by along-isopycnal stirring and indications of eddy-driven oxygen ventilation of the upper oxygen minimum zone were observed. It is concluded that mesoscale stirring of solutes and the offshore transport of eddy core properties could provide an important coastal open-ocean exchange mechanism with potentially large implications for nutrient budgets and biogeochemical cycling in the oxygen minimum zone off Peru.

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: In the present study, the influence of some major tropical modes of variability on northern hemisphere regional blocking frequency variability during boreal winter is investigated. Reanalysis data and an ensemble experiment with the ECMWF model using relaxation towards the ERA-Interim reanalysis data inside the tropics are used. The tropical modes under investigation are El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and the upper tropospheric equatorial zonal-mean zonal wind . An early (late) MJO phase refers to the part of the MJO cycle when enhanced (suppressed) precipitation occurs over the western Indian Ocean and suppressed (enhanced) precipitation occurs over the Maritime Continent and the western tropical Pacific. Over the North Pacific sector, it is found that enhanced (suppressed) high latitude blocking occurs in association with El Niño (La Niña) events, late (early) MJO phases and westerly (easterly) . Over central to southern Europe and the east Atlantic, it is found that late MJO phases, as well as a suppressed MJO are leading to enhanced blocking frequency. Furthermore, early (late) MJO phases are followed by blocking anomalies over the western North Atlantic region, similar to those associated with a positive (negative) North Atlantic Oscillation. Over northern Europe, the easterly (westerly) phase of is associated with enhanced (suppressed) blocking. These results are largely confirmed by both the reanalysis and the model experiment.

Description: The Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE) associated with the Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC) in the western subtropical South Pacific is known to exhibit substantial seasonal and decadal variability. Using an eddy-permitting ocean general circulation model, which is able to reproduce the observed, salient features of the seasonal cycles of shear, stratification, baroclinic production and the associated EKE, we investigate the decadal changes of EKE. We show that the STCC region exhibits, uniquely among the subtropical gyres of the world’s oceans, significant, atmospherically forced, decadal EKE variability. The decadal variations are driven by changing vertical shear between the STCC in the upper 300 m and the South Equatorial Current below, predominantly caused by variations in STCC strength associated with a changing meridional density gradient. In the 1970s, an increased meridional density gradient results in EKE twice as large as in later decades in the model. Utilizing sensitivity experiments, decadal variations in the wind field are shown to be the essential driver. Local wind stress curl anomalies associated with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) lead to up- and downwelling of the thermocline, inducing strengthening or weakening of the STCC and the associated EKE. Additionally, remote wind stress curl anomalies in the eastern subtropical South Pacific, which are not related to the IPO, generate density anomalies that propagate westward as Rossby waves and can account for up to 30–40 % of the density anomalies in the investigated region.

Description: The mechanisms involved in setting the annual cycle of the Florida Current transport are revisited using an adjoint model approach. Adjoint sensitivities of the Florida Current transport to wind stress reproduce a realistic seasonal cycle with an amplitude of ~1.2 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1). The annual cycle is predominantly determined by wind stress forcing and related coastal upwelling (downwelling) north of the Florida Strait along the shelf off the North American coast. Fast barotropic waves propagate these anomalies southward and reach the Florida Strait within a month, causing an amplitude of ~1 Sv. Long baroclinic planetary Rossby waves originating from the interior are responsible for an amplitude of ~0.8 Sv but have a different phase. The sensitivities corresponding to the first baroclinic mode propagate westward and are highly influenced by topography. Considerable sensitivities are only found west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with maximum values at the western shelf edge. The second baroclinic mode also has an impact on the Florida Current variability, but only when a mean flow is present. A second-mode wave train propagates southwestward from the ocean bottom on the western side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between ~36° and 46°N and at Flemish Cap, where the mean flow interacts with topography, to the surface. Other processes such as baroclinic waves along the shelf and local forcing within the Florida Strait are of minor importance.

Description: The residual effect of surface gravity waves on mean flows in the upper ocean is investigated using thickness weighted mean (TWM) theory applied in a vertically Lagrangian and horizontally Eulerian coordinate system. Depth-dependent equations for the conservation of volume, momentum, and energy are derived. These equations allow for (i) finite amplitude fluid motions, (ii) the horizontal divergence of currents and (iii) a concise treatment of both the kinematic and viscous boundary conditions at the sea surface. Under the assumptions of steady and monochromatic waves and a uniform turbulent viscosity, the TWM momentum equations are used to illustrate the pressure- and viscosity-induced momentum fluxes through the surface that are implicit in previous studies of the wave-induced modification of the classical Ekman spiral problem. The TWM approach clarifies, in particular, the surface momentum flux associated with the so-called virtual wave stress of Longuet-Higgins. Overall the TWM framework can be regarded as an alternative to the three-dimensional Lagrangian mean framework of Pierson. Moreover the TWM framework can be used to include the residual effect of surface waves in large-scale circulation models. In specific models that carry the TWM velocity appropriate for advecting tracers as their velocity variable, the turbulent viscosity term should be modified so that the viscosity acts only on the Eulerian mean velocity.

Description: This study focuses on an important aspect of air–sea interaction in models, namely, large-scale, spurious heat fluxes due to false pathways of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current (NAC) in the “storm formation region” south and east of Newfoundland. Although high-resolution eddy-resolving models show some improvement in this respect, results are sensitive to poorly understood, subgrid-scale processes for which there is currently no complete, physically based parameterization. A simple method to correct an ocean general circulation model (OGCM), acting as a practical substitute for a physically based parameterization, is explored: the recently proposed “semiprognostic method,” a technique for adiabatically adjusting flow properties of a hydrostatic OGCM. The authors show that application of the method to an eddy-permitting model of the North Atlantic Ocean yields more realistic flow patterns and watermass characteristics in the Gulf Stream and NAC regions; in particular, spurious surface heat fluxes are reduced. Four simple modifications to the method are proposed, and their benefits are demonstrated. The modifications successfully account for three drawbacks of the original method: reduced geostrophic wave speeds, damped mesoscale eddy activity, and spurious interaction with topography. It is argued that use of a corrected (eddy permitting) OGCM in a coupled modeling system for simulating present climate (as now becomes possible because of increasing computer power) should lead to a more realistic simulation in regions of strong air–sea interaction as compared with that obtained with an uncorrected model. The method is also well suited for the simulation of the uptake and transport of passive tracers, such as anthropogenic carbon dioxide or components of ecosystem models.

Description: We perform eddy-resolving and high-vertical-resolution numerical simulations of the circulation in an idealized equatorial Atlantic Ocean in order to explore the formation of the deep equatorial circulation (DEC) in this basin. Unlike in previous studies, the deep equatorial intraseasonal variability (DEIV) that is believed to be the source of the DEC is generated internally by instabilities of the upper ocean currents. Two main simulations are discussed: Solution 1, configured with a rectangular basin and with wind forcing that is zonally and temporally uniform; and Solution 2, with realistic coastlines and with an annual cycle of wind forcing varying zonally. Somewhat surprisingly, Solution 1 produces the more realistic DEC: The large-vertical-scale currents (Equatorial Intermediate Currents or EICs) are found over a large zonal portion of the basin, and the small-vertical-scale equatorial currents (Equatorial Deep Jets or EDJs) form low-frequency, quasi-resonant, baroclinic equatorial basin modes with phase propagating mostly downward, consistent with observations. We demonstrate that both types of currents arise from the rectification of DEIV, consistent with previous theories. We also find that the EDJs contribute to maintaining the EICs, suggesting that the nonlinear energy transfer is more complex than previously thought. In Solution 2, the DEC is unrealistically weak and less spatially coherent than in the first simulation probably because of its weaker DEIV. Using intermediate solutions, we find that the main reason for this weaker DEIV is the use of realistic coastlines in Solution 2. It remains to be determined, what needs to be modified or included to obtain a realistic DEC in the more realistic configuration.