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  • American Meteorological Society  (32)
  • 1
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    Topographic and Mixed Layer Submesoscale Currents in the Near-Surface Southwestern Tropical Pacific (2017)
    American Meteorological Society
    Details
    Publication Date: 2017-05-19
    Description: The distribution and strength of submesoscale (SM) surface layer fronts and filaments generated through mixed layer baroclinic energy conversion and submesoscale coherent vortices (SCVs) generated by topographic drag are analyzed in numerical simulations of the near-surface southwestern Pacific, north of 16°S. In the Coral Sea a strong seasonal cycle in the surface heat flux leads to a winter SM “soup” consisting of baroclinic mixed layer eddies (MLEs), fronts, and filaments similar to those seen in other regions farther away from the equator. However, a strong wind stress seasonal cycle, largely in sync with the surface heat flux cycle, is also a source of SM processes. SM restratification fluxes show distinctive signatures corresponding to both surface cooling and wind stress. The winter peak in SM activity in the Coral Sea is not in phase with the summer dominance of the mesoscale eddy kinetic energy in the region, implying that local surface layer forcing effects are more important for SM generation than the nonlocal eddy deformation field. In the topographically complex Solomon and Bismarck Seas, a combination of equatorial proximity and boundary drag generates SCVs with large-vorticity Rossby numbers (Ro ~ 10). River outflows in the Bismarck and Solomon Seas make a contribution to SM generation, although they are considerably weaker than the topographic effects. Mean to eddy kinetic energy conversions implicate barotropic instability in SM topographic wakes, with the strongest values seen north of the Vitiaz Strait along the coast of Papua New Guinea.
    Print ISSN: 0022-3670
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
    Published by American Meteorological Society
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  • 2
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    Air–Sea Interaction over the Eastern Pacific Warm Pool: Gap Winds, Thermocline Dome, and Atmospheric Convection* (2005)
    American Meteorological Society
    Details
    Publication Date: 2005-01-01
    Description: High-resolution satellite observations are used to investigate air–sea interaction over the eastern Pacific warm pool. In winter, strong wind jets develop over the Gulfs of Tehuantepec, Papagayo, and Panama, accelerated by the pressure gradients between the Atlantic and Pacific across narrow passes of Central American cordillera. Patches of cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and high chlorophyll develop under these wind jets as a result of increased turbulent heat flux from the ocean and enhanced mixing across the base of the ocean mixed layer. Despite a large decrease in SST (exceeding 3°C in seasonal means), the cold patches associated with the Tehuantepec and Papagayo jets do not have an obvious effect on local atmospheric convection in winter since the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is located farther south. The cold patch of the Panama jet to the south, on the other hand, cuts through the winter ITCZ and breaks it into two parts. A pronounced thermocline dome develops west of the Gulf of Papagayo, with the 20°C isotherm only 30 m deep throughout the year. In summer when the Panama jet disappears and the other two wind jets weaken, SST is 0.5°C lower over this Costa Rica Dome than the background. This cold spot reduces local precipitation by half, punching a hole of 500 km in diameter in the summer ITCZ. The dome underlies a patch of open-ocean high chlorophyll. This thermocline dome is an ocean dynamic response to the positive wind curls south of the Papagayo jet, which is optimally oriented to excite ocean Rossby waves that remotely affect the ocean to the west. The meridionally oriented Tehuantepec and Panama jets, by contrast, only influence the local thermocline depth with few remote effects on SST and the atmosphere. The orographical-triggered air–sea interaction described here is a good benchmark for testing high-resolution climate models now under development.
    Print ISSN: 0894-8755
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0442
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Published by American Meteorological Society
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  • 3
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    Scales of Variability in the Equatorial Pacific Inferred form Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean Buoy Array (1996)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 1996-12-01
    Print ISSN: 0894-8755
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0442
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Published by American Meteorological Society
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  • 4
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    Mean Three-Dimensional Circulation in the Northeast Tropical Pacific* (2002)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2002-09-01
    Description: Historical XBT data are used to construct a mean climatology of the three-dimensional geostrophic circulation in the northeast tropical Pacific (southwest of Mexico and Central America) and are diagnosed based on linear dynamics forced with satellite scatterometer winds. Unlike the familiar central tropical Pacific, where the zonal scales are very large and the wind forcing nearly a function of latitude alone, the North Pacific east of about 120°W is strongly influenced by wind jets blowing through gaps in the Central American cordillera. The curl imposed by these wind jets imprints on the ocean, producing a distinctive pattern of thermocline topography and geostrophic currents that are consistent with the Sverdrup balance. Notably, the weakening of the North Equatorial Countercurrent near 110°W is due to the wind forcing. Given the observed stratification and wind stress curl, planetary vorticity conservation also determines the distribution of vertical velocity in the region, with about 3.5 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) of upwelling through the base of the thermocline under the Costa Rica Dome. This upwelling is associated with stretching of the water column under the dome, which thereby causes the northern “Subsurface Counter Current” (SSCC or Tsuchiya Jet) to turn away from the equator; about half the transport of the SSCC upwells through the thermocline via this mechanism. This may be part of the process by which intermediate-depth water, flowing into the Pacific from the south, is brought to the surface and into the Northern Hemisphere.
    Print ISSN: 0022-3670
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
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  • 5
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    Distinct 17- and 33-Day Tropical Instability Waves in Subsurface Observations* (2007)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2007-04-01
    Description: Tropical instability waves (TIWs) within a half-degree of the equator in the Pacific Ocean have been consistently observed in meridional velocity with periods of around 20 days. On the other hand, near 5°N, TIWs have been observed in sea surface height (SSH), thermocline depth, and velocity to have periods near 30 days. Tropical Atmosphere–Ocean (TAO) Project moored equatorial velocity and temperature time series are used to investigate the spatial and temporal structure of TIWs during 3 years of La Niña conditions from 1998 through 2001. Along 140°W, where the TIW temperature and velocity variabilities are at their maxima, these variabilities include two distinct TIWs with periods of 17 and 33 days, rather than one broadbanded process. As predicted by modeling studies, the 17-day TIW variability is shown to occur not only in meridional velocity at the equator, but also in subsurface temperature at 2°N and 2°S, while the 33-day TIW variability is observed primarily in subsurface temperature at 5°N. These two TIWs, respectively, are shown to have characteristics similar to a Yanai wave/surface-trapped instability and an unstable first meridional mode Rossby wave. One implication of such a description is that the velocity variability on the equator is not directly associated with the dominant 33-day variability along 5°N.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
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  • 6
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    The Annual Cycle of Circulation of the Southwest Subtropical Pacific, Analyzed in an Ocean GCM* (2007)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2007-06-01
    Description: An ocean GCM, interpreted in light of linear models and sparse observations, is used to diagnose the dynamics of the annual cycle of circulation in the western boundary current system of the southwest Pacific Ocean. The simple structure of annual wind stress curl over the South Pacific produces a large region of uniformly phased, stationary thermocline depth anomalies such that the western subtropical gyre spins up and down during the year, directing flow anomalies alternately toward and away from the boundary at its northern end, near 10°S. The response of the western boundary currents is to redistribute these anomalies northward toward the equator and southward to the subtropical gyre, a redistribution that is determined principally by linear Rossby processes, not boundary dynamics. When the subtropical gyre and South Equatorial Current (SEC) are strong (in the second half of the year), the result is both increased equatorward transport of the New Guinea Coastal Current and poleward transport anomalies along the entire Australian coast. Because of this opposite phasing of boundary current anomalies across 10°S, annual migration of the bifurcation point of the total SEC, near 18°S in the mean, has no significance regarding variability of transport from subtropics to equator.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
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  • 7
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    Influence of Equatorial Dynamics on the Pacific North Equatorial Countercurrent* (2000)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2000-12-01
    Print ISSN: 0022-3670
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
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  • 8
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    Seasonal Evolution of Aleutian Low Pressure Systems: Implications for the North Pacific Subpolar Circulation* (2009)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2009-06-01
    Description: The seasonal change in the development of Aleutian low pressure systems from early fall to early winter is analyzed using a combination of meteorological reanalysis fields, satellite sea surface temperature (SST) data, and satellite wind data. The time period of the study is September–December 2002, although results are shown to be representative of the long-term climatology. Characteristics of the storms were documented as they progressed across the North Pacific, including their path, central pressure, deepening rate, and speed of translation. Clear patterns emerged. Storms tended to deepen in two distinct geographical locations—the Gulf of Alaska in early fall and the western North Pacific in late fall. In the Gulf of Alaska, a quasi-permanent “notch” in the SST distribution is argued to be of significance. The signature of the notch is imprinted in the atmosphere, resulting in a region of enhanced cyclonic potential vorticity in the lower troposphere that is conducive for storm development. Later in the season, as winter approaches and the Sea of Okhotsk becomes partially ice covered and cold, the air emanating from the Asian continent leads to enhanced baroclinicity in the region south of Kamchatka. This corresponds to enhanced storm cyclogenesis in that region. Consequently, there is a seasonal westward migration of the dominant lobe of the Aleutian low. The impact of the wind stress curl pattern resulting from these two regions of storm development on the oceanic circulation is investigated using historical hydrography. It is argued that the seasonal bimodal input of cyclonic vorticity from the wind may be partly responsible for the two distinct North Pacific subarctic gyres.
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  • 9
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    Near-Surface Shear Flow in the Tropical Pacific Cold Tongue Front* (2009)
    American Meteorological Society
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    Publication Date: 2009-05-01
    Description: Near-surface shear in the Pacific cold tongue front at 2°N, 140°W was measured using a set of five moored current meters between 5 and 25 m for nine months during 2004–05. Mean near-surface currents were strongly westward and only weakly northward (∼3 cm s−1). Mean near-surface shear was primarily westward and, thus, oriented to the left of the southeasterly trades. When the southwestward geostrophic shear was subtracted from the observed shear, the residual ageostrophic currents relative to 25 m were northward and had an Ekman-like spiral, in qualitative agreement with an Ekman model modified for regions with a vertically uniform front. According to this “frontal Ekman” model, the ageostrophic Ekman spiral is forced by the portion of the wind stress that is not balanced by the surface geostrophic shear. Analysis of a composite tropical instability wave (TIW) confirms that ageostrophic shear is minimized when winds blow along the front, and strengthens when winds blow oblique to the front. Furthermore, the magnitude of the near-surface shear, both in the TIW and diurnal composites, was sensitive to near-surface stratification and mixing. A diurnal jet was observed that was on average 12 cm s−1 stronger at 5 m than at 25 m, even though daytime stratification was weak. The resulting Richardson number indicates that turbulent viscosity is larger at night than daytime and decreases with depth. A “generalized Ekman” model is also developed that assumes that viscosity becomes zero below a defined frictional layer. The generalized model reproduces many of the features of the observed mean shear and is valid both in frontal regions and at the equator.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
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  • 10
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    Surface Circulation in the Solomon Sea Derived from Lagrangian Drifter Observations* (2012)
    American Meteorological Society
    Details
    Publication Date: 2012-03-01
    Description: Velocity measurements from satellite-tracked surface drifters collected between 1994 and 2010 are used to map the surface circulation in the Solomon Sea, the last passageway for waters of subtropical origin flowing northward toward the equator, where they replenish the Pacific warm pool. Pseudo-Eulerian statistics of the drifter observations show a strong seasonal cycle in both the mean circulation and the eddy kinetic energy in the region. The circulation is characterized by a strong northward flow from June to November (the season of strong southeasterly trade winds over the Solomon Sea) and a mostly southward flow with increased variability from December to May (when the winds over the sea are weak). The seasonal velocity signal has the largest magnitude narrowly along the double western boundary formed by the eastern coastlines of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, suggesting that direct wind driving with its much larger spatial scales is not the main influence. In addition, the surface circulation exhibits substantial interannual variability of magnitude comparable to that of the seasonal cycle with velocity and temperature anomalies consistent with changes in the western boundary current acting to compensate for the discharge and recharge of the Pacific warm pool during ENSO.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0485
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