Abstract

Transient eddies in the atmosphere induce a poleward transport of heat and moisture. A moist static energy budget of the surface layer is determined from the NCEP reanalysis data to evaluate the impact of the storm track. It is found that the transient eddies induce a cooling and drying of the surface layer with a monthly mean maximum of 60 W m⁻². The cooling in the midlatitudes extends zonally over the entire basin. The impact of this cooling and drying on surface heat fluxes, sea surface temperature (SST), water mass transformation, and vertical structure of the Pacific is investigated using an ocean model coupled to an atmospheric mixed layer model. The cooling by atmospheric storms is represented by adding an eddy-induced transfer velocity to the mean velocity in an atmospheric mixed layer model. This is based on a parameterization of tracer transport by eddies in the ocean. When the atmospheric mixed layer model is coupled to an ocean model, realistic SSTs are simulated. The SST is up to 3 K lower due to the cooling by storms. The additional cooling leads to enhanced transformation rates of water masses in the midlatitudes. The enhanced shallow overturning cells affect even tropical regions. Together with realistic SST and deep winter mixed layer depths, this leads to formation of homogeneous water masses in the upper North Pacific, in accordance to observations.

Abstract

A linear equivalent barotropic (EB) model is applied to study the effects of the bottom topography H and baroclinicity on the total transport and the position of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The model is based on the observation of Killworth that the time mean velocity field of the FRAM Model is self-similar in the vertical.

A realistic large-scale topography H̄ is constructed by filtering 5-minute resolution data with an appropriate smoothing kernel. It is shown that the asymptotic behavior of the solution of the barotropic model (a particular case of the EB model) in the limit of very small bottom friction depends on subtle details of topography and basin geometry. Given the uncertainties of the smoothing procedure the authors conclude that the barotropic model is not robust with respect to possible variations of model topography.

The authors found that the EB model with a vertical profile function similar to that of Killworth reproduces the major features of the time- and depth-averaged FRAM solution, including the position and the transport of the ACC, reasonably well. The solution is robust with respect to uncertainties in H̄. The EB model is much improved by a parameterization of the bottom friction via near-bottom velocity, which tends to shut off the flow in the shallow regions.

Abstract

Pacific Ocean oceanic heat transport is studied in an ocean model coupled to an atmospheric mixed-layer model. The shallow meridional overturning circulation cells in the Tropics and subtropics transport heat away from the equator. The heat transport by the horizontal gyre circulation in the Tropics is smaller and directed toward the equator. The response of the Pacific oceanic heat transport to El Niño–like winds, extratropical winds, and variations in the Indonesian Throughflow is studied. Large, opposing changes are found in the heat transport by the meridional overturning and the horizontal gyres in response to El Niño–like winds. Consequently, the change in total heat transport is relatively small. The overturning transport decreases and the gyres spin down when the winds decrease in the Tropics. This compensation breaks down when the Indonesian Throughflow is allowed to vary in the model. A reduced Indonesian Throughflow, as observed during El Niño–like conditions, causes a large reduction of poleward heat transport in the South Pacific and affects the ocean heat transport in the southern tropical Pacific. Extratropical atmospheric anomalies can affect tropical ocean heat transport as the tropical thermocline is ventilated from the extratropics. The authors find that changes in the heat loss in the midlatitudes affect tropical ocean heat transport by driving an enhanced buoyancy-driven overturning that reaches into the Tropics. The results are related to observed changes in the overturning circulation in the Pacific in the 1990s, sea surface temperarture changes, and changes in atmospheric circulation. The results imply that the ratio of heat transport in the ocean to that in the atmosphere can change.

Abstract

The observed subtropical gyre in the North Pacific shows a shift in meridional location with depth. At shallow levels the density deviation peaks at around 15°N while at deep levels the peak is more like 30°N. It is argued here using analytical solutions to the beta-plane shallow-water equations that such a shift can be explained by the effects of oceanic dissipation processes. These solutions show that the highly damped solution is approximately proportional to Ekman pumping whereas the lightly damped case tends toward the classical Sverdrup solution. In the North Pacific, Ekman pumping peaks near 15°N while the Sverdrup solution peaks at 30°N. It is further demonstrated that 1) density deviations in the upper ocean are more highly influenced by higher order baroclinic modes than those in the deep, which are influenced by the lower modes, and 2) constant dissipation effectively acts much more strongly on the higher order baroclinic modes because of their slower speeds and smaller Rossby radii. These two factors thus explain the observed shift in the gyre with depth.

Abstract

Could the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s have been predicted in advance if the SST anomalies of the 1930s had been foreknown? Ensembles of model simulations forced with historical observed SSTs in the global ocean, and also separately in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, are compared with an ensemble begun in January 1929 with modeled atmosphere and land initial conditions and integrated through the 1930s with climatological SSTs. The ensemble with climatological SSTs produces values for the precipitation averaged over 1932–39 that are not statistically different from model climatology. In contrast, the ensembles with global SST forcing produce a drought centered in the central plains and southwestern North America that is clearly separated from the model climatology. Both the tropical Pacific and northern tropical Atlantic SST anomalies produce a statistically significant model drought in this region. The modeled drought has a spatial pattern that is different from the observed drought, which was instead centered in the central and northern plains and also impacted the northern Rocky Mountain states but not northeastern Mexico. The model error in extending the Dust Bowl drought too far south is attributed to an incorrect response of the model to warm subtropical North Atlantic SST anomalies. The model error in the northern states cannot be attributed to an incorrect response to tropical SST anomalies. The model also fails to reproduce the strong surface air warming across most of the continent during the 1930s. In contrast, the modeled patterns of precipitation reduction and surface air temperature warming during the 1950s drought are more realistic. Tree-ring records show that the Dust Bowl pattern of drought has occurred before, suggesting that while the extensive human-induced land surface degradation and dust aerosol loading of the 1930s drought may have played an important role in generating the observed drought pattern, natural processes, possibly including land interactions, are capable of generating droughts centered to the north of the main ENSO teleconnection region. Despite this caveat, advance knowledge of tropical SSTs alone would have allowed a high-confidence prediction of a multiyear and severe drought, but one centered too far south and without strong cross-continental warming.

Abstract

Numerical experiments are performed to examine the causes of variability of Atlantic Ocean SST during the period covered by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis (1958–98). Three ocean models are used. Two are mixed layer models: one with a 75-m-deep mixed layer and the other with a variable depth mixed layer. For both mixed layer models the ocean heat transports are assumed to remain at their diagnosed climatological values. The third model is a full dynamical ocean general circulation model (GCM). All models are coupled to a model of the subcloud atmospheric mixed layer (AML). The AML model computes the air temperature and humidity by balancing surface fluxes, radiative cooling, entrainment at cloud base, advection and eddy heat, and moisture transports. The models are forced with NCEP–NCAR monthly mean winds from 1958 to 1998.

The ocean mixed layer models adequately reproduce the dominant pattern of Atlantic Ocean climate variability in both its spatial pattern and time dependence. This pattern is the familiar tripole of alternating zonal bands of SST anomalies stretching between the subpolar gyre and the subtropics. This SST pattern goes along with a wind pattern that corresponds to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Analysis of the results reveals that changes in wind speed create the subtropical SST anomalies while at higher latitudes changes in advection of temperature and humidity and changes in atmospheric eddy fluxes are important.

An observational analysis of the boundary layer energy balance is also performed. Anomalous atmospheric eddy heat fluxes are very closely tied to the SST anomalies. Anomalous horizontal eddy fluxes damp the SST anomalies while anomalous vertical eddy fluxes tend to cool the entire midlatitude North Atlantic during the NAO’s high-index phase with the maximum cooling exactly where the SST gradient is strengthened the most.

The SSTs simulated by the ocean mixed layer model are compared with those simulated by the dynamic ocean GCM. In the far North Atlantic Ocean anomalous ocean heat transports are equally important as surface fluxes in generating SST anomalies and they act constructively. The anomalous heat transports are associated with anomalous Ekman drifts and are consequently in phase with the changing surface fluxes. Elsewhere changes in surface fluxes dominate over changes in ocean heat transport. These results suggest that almost all of the variability of the North Atlantic SST in the last four decades can be explained as a response to changes in surface fluxes caused by changes in the atmospheric circulation. Changes in the mean atmospheric circulation force the SST while atmospheric eddy fluxes dampen the SST. Both the interannual variability and the longer timescale changes can be explained in this way. While the authors were unable to find evidence for changes in ocean heat transport systematically leading or lagging development of SST anomalies, this leaves open the problem of explaining the causes of the low-frequency variability. Possible causes are discussed with reference to the modeling results.

Abstract

Observations, atmosphere models forced by historical SSTs, and idealized simulations are used to determine the causes and mechanisms of interannual to multidecadal precipitation anomalies over southeast South America (SESA) since 1901. About 40% of SESA precipitation variability over this period can be accounted for by global SST forcing. Both the tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans share the driving of SESA precipitation, with the latter contributing the most on multidecadal time scales and explaining a wetting trend from the early midcentury until the end of the last century. Cold tropical Atlantic SST anomalies are shown to drive wet conditions in SESA. The dynamics that link SESA precipitation to tropical Atlantic SST anomalies are explored. Cold tropical Atlantic SST anomalies force equatorward-flowing upper-tropospheric flow to the southeast of the tropical heating anomaly, and the vorticity advection by this flow is balanced by vortex stretching and ascent, which drives the increased precipitation. The 1930s Pampas Dust Bowl drought occurred, via this mechanism, in response to warm tropical Atlantic SST anomalies. The atmospheric response to cold tropical Pacific SSTs also contributed. The tropical Atlantic SST anomalies linked to SESA precipitation are the tropical components of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. There is little evidence that the large trends over past decades are related to anthropogenic radiative forcing, although models project that this will cause a modest wetting of the climate of SESA. As such, and if the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation has shifted toward a warm phase, it should not be assumed that the long-term wetting trend in SESA will continue. Any reversal to a drier climate more typical of earlier decades would have clear consequences for regional agriculture and water resources.

Abstract

Ocean models are used to investigate how variations in surface heat fluxes and ocean heat transports contribute to variations of tropical Atlantic SSTs on decadal timescales. The observed patterns of variability, deduced from reanalyses of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), are found to involve the ocean’s response to variations in the strength of the northeast and southeast trades. Stronger trade winds are associated with anomalously cool surface temperatures. The trade winds and surface temperatures in each hemisphere appear to behave independently but each is associated with anomalous cross-equatorial flow. A numerical model is used in an attempt to simulate this variability. The model is an ocean general circulation model coupled to a simple model of the atmospheric mixed layer and is forced by NCEP winds from 1958 to 1998. The model reasonably reproduces the observed variability. Analysis of the ocean model’s mixed layer energy budget shows that, on decadal timescales, the surface temperature variability is forced by the changes in surface fluxes and is damped by changes in the ocean heat transport. The changes in ocean heat transport are dominated by the horizontal advection of anomalous temperatures by the mean meridional currents. If advection of the mean SST field by anomalous currents is neglected, then the history of observed surface temperatures can still be adequately represented. If advection of the anomalous SSTs by the mean circulation is also neglected, then the model significantly overestimates the surface temperature anomalies but reproduces their temporal evolution. In the more complete models, between 15°N and 15°S, the changes in ocean heat transport are largely in phase with the changes in surface heat fluxes and SST. Evidence for ocean heat transport either leading or lagging development of surface temperature anomalies is weak in the deep Tropics but appears more persuasive in the northern subtropics. Consistent with these findings, SST anomalies are largely stationary in the deep Tropics but appear to propagate poleward in the northern subtropics. Nonetheless these results suggest that the role of the ocean in tropical Atlantic decadal climate variability is largely passive and damping. Differences with other models that show a more critical role for the ocean, and relevance to reality, are discussed.

Abstract

The causes of decadal variations of North Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are examined using a hindcast performed with an ocean general circulation model thermodynamically coupled to an atmospheric mixed layer model (OGCM–AML model) and forced by the time history of observed surface winds. The “shift” in North Pacific Ocean climate that occurred around 1976/77 is focused on since this is the best observed example available. After the 1976/77 shift the Aleutian low deepened and moved to the southeast of its previous position. This placed anomalous cyclonic flow over the North Pacific. The SST response, as simulated by the ocean model, consisted of two components: a fast and local part and a delayed and remote part. In the central Pacific stronger westerlies cool the ocean by increased equatorward Ekman drift. Here the dynamical cooling is sufficiently large that the surface fluxes damp the SST anomaly. This Ekman response is fast and local and cools the SSTs beginning in 1977 and persisting through 1988. In the early 1980s cool SSTs emerge in the latitude of the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension east of Japan and persist until 1989. It is shown that this region of cooling is associated with a southward displacement of the latitude of the confluence between the subpolar and subtropical gyres. This is consistent with the southward shift in the zero wind stress curl line. The timescale for the gyre adjustment is no more than 4 yr. These results compare favorably with observations that also first show the central Pacific cooling and, later, cooling east of Japan. Observations show the cooling in the Kursohio–Oyashio Extension region to be damped by surface fluxes, implying an oceanic origin. The timescale of adjustment is also supported by analyses of observations.

The delayed response of the ocean to the varying winds therefore creates SST anomalies as the latitude of the gyre confluence varies. The delayed SST response is of the same sign as the locally forced SST signal suggesting that, to the extent there is a feedback, it is positive. Implications for the origins of decadal climate variability of the North Pacific are discussed.

Abstract

The causes of the seasonal cycles of the subtropical anticyclones, and the associated zonal asymmetries of sea surface temperature (SST) across the subtropical oceans, are examined. In all basins the cool waters in the east and warm waters in the west are sustained by a mix of atmosphere and ocean processes. When the anticyclones are best developed, during local summer, subsidence and equatorward advection on the eastern flanks of the anticyclones cool SSTs, while poleward flow on the western flanks warms SSTs. During local winter the SST asymmetry across the subtropical North Atlantic and North Pacific is maintained by warm water advection in the western boundary currents that offsets the large extraction of heat by advection of cold, dry air of the continents and by transient eddies. In the Southern Hemisphere ocean processes are equally important in cooling the eastern oceans by upwelling and advection during local winter. Ocean dynamics are important in amplifying the SST asymmetry, as experiments with general circulation models show. This amplification has little impact on the seasonal cycle of the anticyclones in the Northern Hemisphere, strengthens the anticyclones in the Southern Hemisphere, and helps position the anticyclones over the eastern basins in both hemispheres. Experiments with an idealized model are used to suggest that the subtropical anticyclones arise fundamentally as a response to monsoonal heating over land but need further amplification to bring them up to observed strength. The amplification is provided by local air–sea interaction. The SST asymmetry, generated through local air–sea interaction by the weak anticyclones forced by heating over land, stabilizes the atmosphere to deep convection in the east and destabilizes it in the west. Convection spreads from the land regions to the adjacent regions of the western subtropical oceans, and the enhanced zonal asymmetry of atmospheric heating strengthens the subtropical anticyclones.