ALBERT

Description: Denitrification was investigated in the Baltic proper at two stations with different conditions in the deep water. The Gotland Deep was examined as an example of a basin with anoxic, H2S‐containing deep water and station T was taken as an example of low‐oxygen (〈0.2 ml liter−1), sulfide‐free deep water. Denitrification was measured by the acetylene blockage method; in addition, N2O reduction was followed in samples without acetylene. To shed light on the factors limiting denitrification, we compared in situ rates to denitrification after adding nitrate or electron donors. Denitrification was restricted to the layer of the oxic‐anoxic interface in the Gotland Deep and to the water layer near the sediment of station T. For both stations it could be shown that denitrification was not limited by nitrate availability. A lack of available organic C seemed to limit denitrification rates and growth of denitrifiers. As a result of C limitation in the water column, denitrification was restricted to energy‐rich interfaces. In the low‐oxygen water away from energy‐rich interfaces, the less C‐demanding nitrification‐denitrification coupling (NH4+ → N2O → N2) seemed to be favored. Denitrification in the water of the central Baltic seems to be subjected to strong variability due to changing C supply during the course of the year. However, limitation by C availability can be assumed for most of the year and should be taken into account in calculating the N budget of the Baltic.

Description: The decadal-scale variability in the tropical Pacific has been analyzed herein by means of observations and numerical model simulations. The two leading modes of the sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the central western Pacific are a decadal mode with a period of about 10 yr and the ENSO mode with a dominant period of about 4 yr. The SST anomaly pattern of the decadal mode is ENSO like. The decadal mode, however, explains most variance in the western equatorial Pacific and off the equator. A simulation with an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) forced by reanalysis data is used to explore the origin of the decadal mode. It is found that the variability of the shallow subtropical–tropical overturning cells is an important factor in driving the decadal mode. This is supported by results from a multicentury integration with a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model (CGCM) that realistically simulates tropical Pacific decadal variability. Finally, the sensitivity of the shallow subtropical–tropical overturning cells to greenhouse warming is discussed by analyzing the results of a scenario integration with the same CGCM.

Description: Oceanic ecosystems altered by interdecadal climate variability may provide a feedback to the physical climate by phytoplankton affecting heat fluxes into the upper ocean and dimethylsulfide fluxes into the atmosphere

Description: The current system east of the Grand Banks was intensely observed by World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) array ACM-6 during 1993–95 with eight moorings, reaching about 500 km out from the shelf edge and covering the water column from about 400-m depth to the bottom. More recently, a reduced array by the Institut für Meerskunde (IfM) at Kiel, Germany, of four moorings was deployed during 1999–2001, focusing on the deep-water flow near the western continental slope. Both sets of moored time series, each about 22 months long, are combined here for a mean current boundary section, and both arrays are analyzed for the variability of currents and transports. A mean hydrographic section is derived from seven ship surveys and is used for geostrophic upper-layer extrapolation and isopycnal subdivision of the mean transports into deep-water classes. The offshore part of the combined section is dominated by the deep-reaching North Atlantic Current (NAC) with currents still at 10 cm s−1 near the bottom and a total northward transport of about 140 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), with the details depending on the method of surface extrapolation used. The mean flow along the western boundary was southward with the section-mean North Atlantic Deep Water outflow determined to be 12 Sv below the σθ = 27.74 kg m−3 isopycnal. However, east of the deep western boundary current (DWBC), the deep NAC carries a transport of 51 Sv northward below σθ = 27.74 kg m−3, resulting in a large net northward flow in the western part of the basin. From watermass signatures it is concluded that the deep NAC is not a direct recirculation of DWBC water masses. Transport time series for the DWBC variability are derived for both arrays. The variance is concentrated in the period range from 2 weeks to 2 months, but there are also variations at interannual and longer periods, with much of the DWBC variability being related to fluctuations and meandering of the NAC. A significant annual cycle is not recognizable in the combined current and transport time series of both arrays. The moored array results are compared with other evidence on deep outflow and recirculation, including recent models of different types and complexity.

Description: This study investigates and accounts for the influence of various ice cloud parameters on the retrieval of the surface solar radiation budget (SSRB) from reflected flux at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). The optical properties of ice clouds depend on ice crystal shape, size distribution, water content, and the vertical profiles of geometric and microphysical structure. As a result, the relationship between the SSRB and TOA-reflected flux for an ice cloud atmosphere is more complex and differs from that for water cloud and cloudless atmospheres. The sensitivities of the relationship between the SSRB and TOA-reflected flux are examined with respect to various ice cloud parameters. Uncertainties in the retrieval of the SSRB due to inadequate knowledge of various ice cloud parameters are evaluated thoroughly. The uncertainty study is concerned with both pure ice clouds and multiphase clouds (ice cloud above water cloud). According to the magnitudes of errors in the SSRB retrieval caused by different input variables, parameterized correction terms were introduced. If the input variables are known accurately, errors in the retrieval of the SSRB under a wide range of ice cloud conditions are expected to diminish substantially, to less than 10 W m−2 for 91% of the simulated ice cloud cases. In comparison, the same accuracy may be attained for only 19% of the retrievals for the same ice cloud cases using the retrieval algorithm designed for non-ice-cloud conditions.

Description: Data from a surface mooring located in the Sargasso Sea at 34°N, 70°W between May 1982 and May 1984 were compared with satellite data to investigate large diurnal sea surface temperature changes. Mooring and satellite measurements are in excellent agreement for those days on which no clouds covered the site at the time of the satellite pass. During the summer half-year at this site, there is a 20% charm of diurnal warming of more than 0.5°C, with values of up to 3.5°C observed in the two-year period. Diurnal warming observed at the mooring has been simulated well by a one-dimensional model driven by local beat and momentum fluxes. Under the conditions of very light wind and strong insolation that produce the Largest surface warming, the surface mixed-layer depth reduces to the convection depth, and wind-mixing becomes unimportant. The thermal response is then limited to depths between 1 and 2 m, making it likely that such events have been underreported in routine ship observations. In all cases observed, the spatial extent of warming events as determined by satellite data are well correlated with the corresponding atmospheric pressure patterns. Conditions giving rise to the largest diurnal warming events are often associated with a westward-extending ridge of the Bermuda high. In the region studied, 57°–75°W and 29°–43°N, diurnal warming of more than 1°C was found on occasion to cover areas in excess of 300 000 km2, with warming of more than 2°C coveting areas in excess of 130 000 km2.

Description: Historical data from the region between the Greenwich meridian and the African continental shelf are used to compute the offshore geostrophic transport of the Benguela Current. At 32°S, the Benguela Current is located near the African coast, transporting about 21 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) of surface water toward the north relative to a potential density surface lying between the upper branch of Circumpolar Deep Water and the North Atlantic Deep Watar. Two warm core eddies of probable Agulhas Current origin an observed west of the Benguela Current at 32°S. Near 30°S, the Benguela Current turns toward the northwest and begins to separate from the eastern boundary. It carries about 18 Sv of surface water across 28°S. The current then turns mainly toward the west to flow over a relatively deep segment of the Walvis Ridge south of the Valdivia Bank. A surface current with northward surface of about 10 cm s−1 flows along the western side of the Valdivia Bank, while another northward surface current flows at about 20 cm s−1 some 300 km west of the bank. About 3 Sv of surface now do not leave the Cape Basin south of the Vaidivia Bank, but instead drift northward as a wide. sluggish flow out of the northern end of the Cape Basin. Because of the more southerly seaward extensions of most of the Benguela Current, there are no deep-reaching interactions observed between this current and the cyclonic gyre in the Angola Basin east of the Greenwich meridian. Beneath the surface layer, about 4–5 Sv of Antarctic Intermediate Water are carried northward across 32° and 28°S by the Benguela Current, essentially all of which turns westward to cross the Greenwich meridian south of 24°S.

Description: An XBT interface is described for use with Commodore and other 6502 based microprocessors. This interface takes the form of a single circuit board mounted inside the microcomputer and is completely software controlled. The application of this digital XBT system to the real-time computation of density and dynamic height, using historical or recent temperature-salinity relationships, is also described. Comparison between XBT and CTD measured temperatures from the Northeast Atlantic yield a mean temperature difference of −0.08°C and an rms temperature difference of 0.33°C for the upper 800 m. Examples of dynamic topography maps and a temperature section computed using this technique are also presented and comparison between objectively analyzed XBT and CTD dynamic topographies demonstrates the reliability of the method for mapping the baroclinic flow.

Description: The existence of energetic anticyclonic mid-depth vortices of Mediterranean Water (meddies) questions the validity of a conventional advective–diffusive balance in the eastern Atlantic subtropical gyre. A mesoscale experiment in the Azores–Madeira region reveals a link of these meddies to large-scale subsurface meanders. For the first time it is shown that meddies may have strong surface vorticity, indicative of a generation process involving the Azores Current—a deep reaching near-surface jet.

Description: Intrinsic oscillations of stable geophysical surface frontal currents of the unsteady, nonlinear, reduced-gravity shallow-water equations on an f plane are investigated analytically and numerically. For frictional (Rayleigh) currents characterized by linear horizontal velocity components and parabolic cross sections, the primitive equations are reduced to a set of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations. In the inviscid case, two periodic analytical solutions of the nonlinear problem describing 1) the inertially reversing horizontal displacement of a surface frontal current having a fixed parabolic cross section and 2) the cross-front pulsation of a coastal current emerging from a motionless surface frontal layer are presented. In a linear and in a weakly nonlinear context, analytical expressions for field oscillations and their frequency shift relative to the inertial frequency are presented. For the fully nonlinear problem, solutions referring to a surface frontal coastal current are obtained analytically and numerically. These solutions show that the currents oscillate always superinertially, the frequency and the amplitude of their oscillations depending on the magnitude of the initial disturbance and on the squared current Rossby number. In a linear framework, it is shown that disturbances superimposed on the surface frontal current are standing waves within the bounded region, the frequencies of which are inertial/superinertial for the first mode/higher modes. In the same frame, a zeroth mode, which could be interpreted as the superposition of an inertial wave on a background vorticity field, would formally yield subinertial frequencies. For surface frontal currents affected by Rayleigh friction, it is shown that the magnitude of the mean current decays according to a power law and that the oscillations decay faster, because this decay follows an exponential law. Implications of the intrinsic oscillations and of their rapid dissipation for the near-inertial motion in an active ambient ocean are discussed.