Abstract

While high salinity water extends to the equator in the upper thermocline of the Pacific in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), it hits the western boundary (WB) farther north of the equator in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), suggesting that no interior pathway exists to the equatorial region. By contrast, high tritium water appears on the equator in the central Pacific, apparently through a NH interior pathway within the thermocline. The mechanisms of forming these salinity and tritium distributions and the causes of their difference are investigated using a realistic ocean general circulation model (OGCM).

The OGCM reproduces the properties of tropical salinity distribution quite well and displays interior pathways in the NH. Analysis indicates that the observed salinity distribution is compatible with the existence of a NH interior pathway. Key to the hemispheric difference in thermocline salinity is the sea surface salinity (SSS) distribution in relation to the so-called WB (interior) exchange window, from which subducted water goes to the equatorial region through the WB region (interior ocean). In the NH, high SSSs are found only in the WB exchange window, and high salinity water thus appears to turn onto the WB before reaching the equator. In the SH, on the other hand, high SSSs are found in both the WB and interior exchange windows, and, as a result, high salinity water extends to the equatorial region through both the WB region and interior ocean.

The sea surface tritium field has high values near the eastern boundary within the interior exchange window in the midlatitude North Pacific. Thus, high tritium water takes the NH interior pathway to the equatorial region after the subduction. This is demonstrated by a passive tracer experiment with a sea surface distribution resembling that of tritium. This result suggests that the apparent differences between the isopycnal salinity and tritium distributions are largely due to differences in surface distribution, raising caution about interpreting ocean circulation with tracer fields alone.

Abstract

In the North Pacific, the wintertime sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA), which is represented by March (SSTA_Mar), when the upper-ocean mixed layer depth (h _Mar) reaches its maximum, is formed by the anomalous surface forcing from fall to winter (S′). As a parameter of volume, h _Mar has a potential to modify the impact of S′ on SSTA_Mar. Introducing an upper-ocean heat budget equation, the present study identifies the physical relationship among the spatial distributions of h _Mar, S′, and SSTA_Mar.

The long-term mean of h _Mar adjusts the spatial distribution of SSTA_Mar. Without the adjustment, the impact of S′ on SSTA_Mar is overestimated where the h _Mar mean is deep. Since h _Mar is partially due to seawater temperature, it leads to nonlinearity between the S′ and the SSTA_Mar. When the SSTA_Mar is negative (positive), the sensitivity to S′ is impervious (responsive) with the deepening (shoaling) of the h _Mar compared to the linear sensitivity. The thermal impacts from the ocean to the atmosphere might be underestimated under the assumption of the linear relationship.

Abstract

Equatorward propagation of temperature–salinity (or spiciness) anomalies on an isopycnal surface emanating from the eastern subtropical South Pacific and their formation mechanism are investigated based on a hindcast simulation with an eddy-resolving quasi-global ocean general circulation model. Because of density-compensating meridional distributions of temperature and salinity, the meridional density gradient is weak at the sea surface in the eastern subtropical South Pacific. With these mean fields, cool sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) can make the outcrop line of an isopycnal surface migrate equatorward more than 5° and induce warm and salty anomalies on the isopycnal surface. Subducted warm, salty anomalies propagate to the equatorial region over approximately 5 yr and may influence equatorial isopycnal temperature–salinity anomalies. Although the associated effects are unclear, if these anomalies could further induce warm eastern equatorial SSTAs that are positively correlated with eastern South Pacific SSTAs, opposite sign temperature–salinity anomalies would be formed in the subtropical South Pacific, and a closed cycle having a decadal time scale might be induced.

Abstract

Previous observations have indicated that the Kuroshio’s path in the northern Okinawa Trough of the East China Sea is destabilized and accompanied by meanders with periods of 1–3 months during the winter–spring period. The present study investigates the mechanism responsible for this recurrent seasonally fixed phenomenon. A hypothetical mechanism is constructed based on both a simple wind-driven Ekman-pumping model, acting within the Kuroshio, and a bifurcation model of the Kuroshio path states in the northern Okinawa Trough, established in the previous study. A high-resolution ocean general circulation model is used to examine the hypothetical mechanism.

The numerical model reveals the following mechanism: the wintertime northerly wind prevailing over the Okinawa Trough blows against the Kuroshio, generating Ekman divergence, and hence upwelling within the inshore side of the Kuroshio from the sum of the earth’s rotation and the geostrophic current shear. A necessary condition for this upwelling is probably given by the exponential velocity structure of the surface Kuroshio on the inshore side of the current. This kind of wintertime upwelling acts to make the mean Kuroshio path separate from the continental slope in the northern Okinawa Trough, so that baroclinic instability destabilizes the Kuroshio path, as shown by the bifurcation model of Kuroshio path states.

Abstract

Satellite microwave measurements are analyzed, revealing robust covariability in sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed over the Kuroshio Extension (KE) east of Japan. Ocean hydrodynamic instabilities cause the KE to meander and result in large SST variations. Increased (reduced) wind speeds are found to be associated with warm (cold) SST anomalies. This positive SST–wind correlation in KE is confirmed by in situ buoy measurements and is consistent with a vertical shear adjustment mechanism. Namely, an increase in SST reduces the static stability of the near-surface atmosphere, intensifying the vertical turbulence mixing and bringing fast-moving air from aloft to the sea surface.

South of Japan, the Kuroshio is known to vary between nearshore and offshore paths. These paths are very persistent and can last for months to years. As the Kuroshio shifts its path, coherent wind changes are detected from satellite data. In particular, winds are high south of Tokyo when the Kuroshio takes the nearshore path while they are greatly reduced when this warm current leaves the coast in the offshore path.

The positive SST–wind correlation over the strong Kuroshio Current and its extension is opposite to the negative one often observed in regions of weak currents such as south of the Aleutian low. The latter correlation is considered to be indicative of atmosphere-to-ocean forcing.

Abstract

Despite its wide-ranging potential impacts, the exact cause of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation/variability (AMO/AMV) is far from settled. While the emergence of the AMO sea surface temperature (SST) pattern has been conventionally attributed to the ocean heat transport, a recent study showed that the atmospheric stochastic forcing is sufficient. In this study, we resolve this conundrum by partitioning the multidecadal SST tendency into a part caused by surface heat fluxes and another by ocean dynamics, using a preindustrial control simulation of a state-of-the-art coupled climate model. In the model, horizontal ocean heat advection primarily acts to warm the subpolar SST as in previous studies; however, when the vertical component is also considered, the ocean dynamics overall acts to cool the region. Alternatively, the heat flux term is primarily responsible for the subpolar North Atlantic SST warming, although the associated surface heat flux anomalies are upward as observed. Further decomposition of the heat flux term reveals that it is the mixed layer depth (MLD) deepening that makes the ocean less susceptible for cooling, thus leading to relative warming by increasing the ocean heat capacity. This role of the MLD variability in the AMO signature had not been addressed in previous studies. The MLD variability is primarily induced by the anomalous salinity transport by the Gulf Stream modulated by the multidecadal North Atlantic Oscillation, with turbulent fluxes playing a secondary role. Thus, depending on how we interpret the MLD variability, our results support the two previously suggested frameworks, yet slightly modifying the previous notions.

Abstract

Variability in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) jet speed has been considered to impact the upper-ocean ecosystem. This study investigates potential predictability of interannual variability in the KE jet speed that could arise from the propagation time of wind-driven Rossby waves as suggested by previous studies, through prediction experiments with an eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model (OGCM) under the perfect-model assumption. Despite the small number of experiments available because of limited computational resources, the prediction experiments with no anomalous atmospheric forcing suggest some predictability for not only broad-scale sea surface height anomalies (SSHAs) but also the frontal-scale KE jet speed. The predictability is confirmed in a 60-yr hindcast OGCM integration as a significantly high correlation (r = 0.68) of 13-month running mean time series of the anomalous KE jet speed with SSHAs that appear in the central North Pacific Ocean 3 yr earlier. Although with fewer degrees of freedom, the same lag relationship can be found between satellite-measured SSHAs and the geostrophically derived KE jet speed.

Abstract

Generation and propagation processes of upper-ocean heat content (OHC) in the North Pacific are investigated using oceanic subsurface observations and an eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model hindcast simulation. OHC anomalies are decomposed into physically distinct dynamical components (OHC _ρ ) due to temperature anomalies that are associated with density anomalies and spiciness components (OHC _χ ) due to temperature anomalies that are density compensating with salinity. Analysis of the observational and model data consistently shows that both dynamical and spiciness components contribute to interannual–decadal OHC variability, with the former (latter) component dominating in the subtropical (subpolar) North Pacific. OHC _ρ variability represents heaving of thermocline, propagates westward, and intensifies along the Kuroshio Extension, consistent with jet-trapped Rossby waves, while OHC _χ variability propagates eastward along the subarctic frontal zone, suggesting advection by mean eastward currents. OHC _χ variability tightly corresponds in space to horizontal mean spiciness gradients. Meanwhile, area-averaged OHC _χ anomalies in the western subarctic frontal zone closely correspond in time to meridional shifts of the subarctic frontal zone. Regression coefficient of the OHC _χ time series on the frontal displacement anomalies quantitatively agree with the area-averaged mean spiciness gradient in the region, and suggest that OHC _χ is generated via frontal variability in the subarctic frontal zone.

Abstract

The stratification of the equatorial thermocline is a key variable for tropical climate dynamics, through its influence on the temperature of the water that upwells in the eastern equatorial ocean. In this study, two types of ocean models are used, an ocean general circulation model (GCM) and a 1½-layer model, to investigate processes by which changes in the midlatitude winds affect the equatorial stratification. Specifically, the influences of anomalous mode-water formation, Ekman pumping, and entrainment in the subpolar ocean are examined. The effects of a “sponge layer” adjacent to the northern boundary of the basin are also assessed. Solutions are forced by idealized zonal winds with strong or weak midlatitude westerlies, and they are found in rectangular basins that extend from the equator to 36°N (small basin) or to 60°N (large basin). In the GCM solutions, a prominent response to reduced winds is the thinning of the mixed layer in the northwestern region of the subtropical gyre, leading to less subduction of low-potential-vorticity mode water and hence thinning of the upper thermocline in the central-to-eastern subtropics. Almost all of this thinning signal, however, recirculates within the subtropics, and does not extend to the equator. Another midlatitude response is shallowing (deepening) of the thermocline in the subtropical (subpolar) ocean in response to Ekman pumping. This, primarily, first-baroclinic-mode (n = 1) response has the most influence on the equatorial thermocline. First-baroclinic-mode Rossby waves propagate to the western boundary of the basin where they reflect as packets of coastal Kelvin and short-wavelength Rossby waves that carry the midlatitude signal to the equator. Subsequently, equatorial Kelvin waves spread it along the equator, leading to a shoaling and thinning of the equatorial thermocline. The layer-thickness field h in the 1½-layer model corresponds to thermocline depth in the GCM. Both the sponge layer and subpolar Ekman suction are important factors for the 1½-layer model solutions, requiring water upwelled in the interior ocean to be transported into the sponge layer via the western boundary layer. In the small basin, equatorial h thins in response to weakened westerlies when there is a sponge layer, but it thickens when there is not. In the large basin, equatorial h is unaffected by weakened westerlies when there is a sponge layer, but it thins when water is allowed to entrain into the layer in the subpolar gyre. It is concluded that the thinning of the equatorial thermocline in the GCM solutions is caused by the sponge layer in the small basin and by entrainment in the subpolar ocean in the large one.

Abstract

Through analysis of a hindcast integration of an eddy-resolving quasi-global ocean general circulation model, decadal variability in the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension region is investigated, with particular emphasis on that of the subarctic (Oyashio) and the Kuroshio Extension (KE) fronts. The KE front is deep and is accompanied by a sharp sea surface height (SSH) gradient with modest sea surface temperature (SST) gradient. In contrast, the subarctic front is shallow and is recognized as a zone of tight gradient in SST but not SSH.

As a decadal-scale change from a warm period around 1970 to a cool period in the mid-1980s, those fronts in the model migrate southward as observed, and the associated pronounced cooling is confined mainly to those frontal zones. Reflecting the distinctive vertical structure of the fronts, the mixed layer cooling is the strongest along the subarctic front, whereas the subsurface cooling and the associated salinity changes are most pronounced along the KE front. Concomitantly with their southward migration, the two fronts have undergone decadal-scale intensification. Associated with reduced heat release into the atmosphere, the cooling in the frontal zones can be attributed neither to the direct atmospheric thermal forcing nor to the advective effect of the intensified KE, while the advective effect by the intense Oyashio can contribute to the cooling in the subarctic frontal zone.

In fact, their time evolution is not found to be completely coherent, suggesting that their variability may be governed by different mechanisms. Decadal SSH variability in the KE frontal zone seems to be largely explained by propagation of baroclinic Rossby waves forced by anomalous Ekman pumping in the central North Pacific. This process alone cannot fully explain the corresponding variability in the subarctic frontal zone, where eastward propagating SSH anomalies off the Japanese coast seem to be superimposed on the Rossby wave signals.