On the Mid-Depth Circulation of the World Ocean
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Fronts in the World Ocean's Large Marine Ecosystems. ICES CM 2007
- 1 - This paper can be freely cited without prior reference to the authors International Council ICES CM 2007/D:21 for the Exploration Theme Session D: Comparative Marine Ecosystem of the Sea (ICES) Structure and Function: Descriptors and Characteristics Fronts in the World Ocean’s Large Marine Ecosystems Igor M. Belkin and Peter C. Cornillon Abstract. Oceanic fronts shape marine ecosystems; therefore front mapping and characterization is one of the most important aspects of physical oceanography. Here we report on the first effort to map and describe all major fronts in the World Ocean’s Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). Apart from a geographical review, these fronts are classified according to their origin and physical mechanisms that maintain them. This first-ever zero-order pattern of the LME fronts is based on a unique global frontal data base assembled at the University of Rhode Island. Thermal fronts were automatically derived from 12 years (1985-1996) of twice-daily satellite 9-km resolution global AVHRR SST fields with the Cayula-Cornillon front detection algorithm. These frontal maps serve as guidance in using hydrographic data to explore subsurface thermohaline fronts, whose surface thermal signatures have been mapped from space. Our most recent study of chlorophyll fronts in the Northwest Atlantic from high-resolution 1-km data (Belkin and O’Reilly, 2007) revealed a close spatial association between chlorophyll fronts and SST fronts, suggesting causative links between these two types of fronts. Keywords: Fronts; Large Marine Ecosystems; World Ocean; sea surface temperature. Igor M. Belkin: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 215 South Ferry Road, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882, USA [tel.: +1 401 874 6533, fax: +1 874 6728, email: [email protected]]. -
The East Greenland Current North of Denmark Strait: Part I'
The East Greenland Current North of Denmark Strait: Part I' K. AAGAARD AND L. K. COACHMAN2 ABSTRACT.Current measurements within the East Greenland Current during winter1965 showed that above thecontinental slope there were large on-shore components of flow, probably representing a westward Ekman transport. The speed did not decrease significantly with depth, indicatingthat the barotropic mode domi- nates the flow. Typical current speeds were10 to 15 cm. sec.-l. The transport of the current during winter exceeds 35 x 106 m.3 sec-1. This is an order of magnitude greater than previous estimates and, although there may be seasonal fluctuations in the transport, it suggests that the East Greenland Current primarily represents a circulation internal to the Greenland and Norwegian seas, rather than outflow from the central Polarbasin. RESUME. Lecourant du Groenland oriental au nord du dbtroit de Danemark. Aucours de l'hiver de 1965, des mesures effectukes danslecourant du Groenland oriental ont montr6 que sur le talus continental, la circulation comporte d'importantes composantes dirigkes vers le rivage, ce qui reprksente probablement un flux vers l'ouest selon le mouvement #Ekman. La vitesse ne diminue pas beau- coup avec laprofondeur, ce qui indique que le mode barotropique domine la circulation. Les vitesses typiques du courant sont de 10 B 15 cm/s-1. Au cows de l'hiver, le debit du courant dkpasse 35 x 106 m3/s-1. Cet ordre de grandeur dkpasse les anciennes estimations et, malgrC les fluctuations saisonnihres possibles, il semble que le courant du Groenland oriental correspond surtout B une circulation interne des mers du Groenland et de Norvhge, plut6t qu'8 un Bmissaire du bassin polaire central. -
On the Connection Between the Mediterranean Outflow and The
FEBRUARY 2001 OÈ ZGOÈ KMEN ET AL. 461 On the Connection between the Mediterranean Out¯ow and the Azores Current TAMAY M. OÈ ZGOÈ KMEN,ERIC P. C HASSIGNET, AND CLAES G. H. ROOTH RSMAS/MPO, University of Miami, Miami, Florida (Manuscript received 18 August 1999, in ®nal form 19 April 2000) ABSTRACT As the salty and dense Mediteranean over¯ow exits the Strait of Gibraltar and descends rapidly in the Gulf of Cadiz, it entrains the fresher overlying subtropical Atlantic Water. A minimal model is put forth in this study to show that the entrainment process associated with the Mediterranean out¯ow in the Gulf of Cadiz can impact the upper-ocean circulation in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean and can be a fundamental factor in the establishment of the Azores Current. Two key simpli®cations are applied in the interest of producing an eco- nomical model that captures the dominant effects. The ®rst is to recognize that in a vertically asymmetric two- layer system, a relatively shallow upper layer can be dynamically approximated as a single-layer reduced-gravity controlled barotropic system, and the second is to apply quasigeostrophic dynamics such that the volume ¯ux divergence effect associated with the entrainment is represented as a source of potential vorticity. Two sets of computations are presented within the 1½-layer framework. A primitive-equation-based com- putation, which includes the divergent ¯ow effects, is ®rst compared with the equivalent quasigeostrophic formulation. The upper-ocean cyclonic eddy generated by the loss of mass over a localized area elongates westward under the in¯uence of the b effect until the ¯ow encounters the western boundary. -
Boreal Marine Fauna from the Barents Sea Disperse to Arctic Northeast Greenland
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/394346; this version posted December 16, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Boreal marine fauna from the Barents Sea disperse to Arctic Northeast Greenland Adam J. Andrews1,2*, Jørgen S. Christiansen2, Shripathi Bhat1, Arve Lynghammar1, Jon-Ivar Westgaard3, Christophe Pampoulie4, Kim Præbel1* 1The Norwegian College of Fishery Science, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway 2Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway 3Institute of Marine Research, Tromsø, Norway 4Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland *Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed, e-mail: [email protected], kim.præ[email protected] Keywords: Atlantic cod, Barents Sea, population genetics, dispersal routes. As a result of ocean warming, the species composition of the Arctic seas has begun to shift in a boreal direction. One ecosystem prone to fauna shifts is the Northeast Greenland shelf. The dispersal route taken by boreal fauna to this area is, however, not known. This knowledge is essential to predict to what extent boreal biota will colonise Arctic habitats. Using population genetics, we show that Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), beaked redfish (Sebastes mentella), and deep-sea shrimp (Pandalus borealis) specimens recently found on the Northeast Greenland shelf originate from the Barents Sea, and suggest that pelagic offspring were dispersed via advection across the Fram Strait. Our results indicate that boreal invasions of Arctic habitats can be driven by advection, and that the fauna of the Barents Sea can project into adjacent habitats with the potential to colonise putatively isolated Arctic ecosystems such as Northeast Greenland. -
The Role of Tides in the Spreading of Mediterranean Outflow Waters
Ocean Modelling 133 (2019) 27–43 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean Modelling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocemod The role of tides in the spreading of Mediterranean Outflow waters along the T southwestern Iberian margin ⁎ Alfredo Izquierdoa, , Uwe Mikolajewiczb a Applied Physics Department, University of Cádiz, CEIMAR, Cádiz, Spain, Avda. República Saharahui s/n, CASEM 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain b Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, Bundesstraße 53, Hamburg 20146, Germany ABSTRACT The impact of tides on the spreading of the Mediterranean Outflow Waters (MOW) in the Gulf of Cadiz is investigated through a series of targeted numerical experiments using an ocean general circulation model. The full ephimeridic luni-solar tidal potential is included as forcing. The model grid is global with a strong zoom around the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, the interaction of processes of different space and time scales, which are involved in the MOW spreading, is enabled. Thisis of particular importance in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cádiz, where the width of the MOW plume is a few tens of km. The experiment with enabled tides successfully simulates the main tidal features of the North Atlantic and in the Gulf of Cádiz and the Strait of Gibraltar. The comparison of the fields from simulations with and without tidal forcing shows drastically different MOW pathways in the Gulf of Cádiz: The experiment without tides shows an excessive southwestward spreading of Mediterranean Waters along the North African slope, whereas the run with tides is closer to climatology. A detailed analysis indicates that tidal residual currents in the Gulf of Cádiz are the main cause for these differences. -
The East Greenland Spill Jet*
JUNE 2005 P I CKART ET AL. 1037 The East Greenland Spill Jet* ROBERT S. PICKART,DANIEL J. TORRES, AND PAULA S. FRATANTONI Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts (Manuscript received 6 July 2004, in final form 3 November 2004) ABSTRACT High-resolution hydrographic and velocity measurements across the East Greenland shelf break south of Denmark Strait have revealed an intense, narrow current banked against the upper continental slope. This is believed to be the result of dense water cascading over the shelf edge and entraining ambient water. The current has been named the East Greenland Spill Jet. It resides beneath the East Greenland/Irminger Current and transports roughly 2 Sverdrups of water equatorward. Strong vertical mixing occurs during the spilling, although the entrainment farther downstream is minimal. A vorticity analysis reveals that the increase in cyclonic relative vorticity within the jet is partly balanced by tilting vorticity, resulting in a sharp front in potential vorticity reminiscent of the Gulf Stream. The other components of the Irminger Sea boundary current system are described, including a presentation of absolute transports. 1. Introduction current system—one that is remarkably accurate even by today’s standards (see Fig. 1). The first detailed study of the circulation and water Since these early measurements there have been nu- masses south of Denmark Strait was carried out in the merous field programs that have focused on the hy- mid-nineteenth century by the Danish Admiral Carl drography and circulation of the East Greenland shelf Ludvig Christian Irminger, after whom the sea is and slope. This was driven originally, in part, by the named (Fiedler 2003). -
Chapter 7 Arctic Oceanography; the Path of North Atlantic Deep Water
Chapter 7 Arctic oceanography; the path of North Atlantic Deep Water The importance of the Southern Ocean for the formation of the water masses of the world ocean poses the question whether similar conditions are found in the Arctic. We therefore postpone the discussion of the temperate and tropical oceans again and have a look at the oceanography of the Arctic Seas. It does not take much to realize that the impact of the Arctic region on the circulation and water masses of the World Ocean differs substantially from that of the Southern Ocean. The major reason is found in the topography. The Arctic Seas belong to a class of ocean basins known as mediterranean seas (Dietrich et al., 1980). A mediterranean sea is defined as a part of the world ocean which has only limited communication with the major ocean basins (these being the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans) and where the circulation is dominated by thermohaline forcing. What this means is that, in contrast to the dynamics of the major ocean basins where most currents are driven by the wind and modified by thermohaline effects, currents in mediterranean seas are driven by temperature and salinity differences (the salinity effect usually dominates) and modified by wind action. The reason for the dominance of thermohaline forcing is the topography: Mediterranean Seas are separated from the major ocean basins by sills, which limit the exchange of deeper waters. Fig. 7.1. Schematic illustration of the circulation in mediterranean seas; (a) with negative precipitation - evaporation balance, (b) with positive precipitation - evaporation balance. -
S Origin of the Driftwood on the Coasts of Iceland; A
ORIGIN OF THE DRIFTWOOD ON THE COASTS OF JLS ICELAND; A DENDROCHRONOLOGICAL STUDY Olafur Eggertsson Department of Quaternary Geology, University of Lund Tornavagen 13 223 63 Lund, Sweden ABSTRACT frozen in sea ice - it can be concluded that some of the drift-ice reaching Iceland has the same origin as rouhals, a In many places along the extensive coastline of the driftwood i.e. the Barents and Siberian seas. The cting Eyja Iceland driftwood has been washed ashore over a long youngest dated sample indicates that it is possible for ;ji:ikull. period of time. Although the amount of driftwood arctic driftwood to reach the coasts of Iceland in less varies fmm place to place it is found on almost every than six years. hcach along the coast. The wood originates in the horeal forest regions of Russia/Siberia. Rivers which drain these forested areas can)' driftwood into the INTRODUCTION Arctic Ocean, where it is caught in drifting ice and Iceland is situated at the boundary between Arctic 1sturhlutann I ransported by the oceanic currents. and Atlantic waters. The south coast is affected by the )tnji:ikul (nu A total of 343 samples of driftwood were col warm and saline Atlantic water from the Gulf Stream fectedfmm 3 areas in Iceland and analysed by wood which flows along the west coast where it branches into 16tum t6ku anatomical-and dendrochronological methods, aimed two parts, one that turns westward making a circular hulinn ji:ikli at identifying the origin and age of the wood. A total current in the Irminger Sea, and another that turns to .rggau skala qf'24% of the Picea samples and 5% of the Pinus sam the east along the north coast, mixing with a branch of ar ji:ikullinn ples could be directly dated via tree-ring chronologies the East Icelandic Current (Figure 1). -
Temporal Switching Between Sources of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water
II. Regional ocean climate ICES Marine Science Symposia, 219: 319-325. 2003 Temporal switching between sources of the Denmark Strait overflow water Bert Rudels, Patrick Eriksson, Erik Buch, Gereon Budéus, Eberhard Fahrbach, Svend-Aage Malmberg, Jens Meincke, and Pentti Mälkki Rudels, B., Eriksson, P., Buch, E., Budéus, G., Fahrbach, E., Malmberg, S.-A., Meincke, J., and Mälkki, P. 2003. Temporal switching between sources of the Denmark Strait overflow water. - ICES Marine Science Symposia, 219: 319-325. The Denmark Strait overflow water derives from several distinct sources. Arctic Intermediate Water from the Iceland Sea, Atlantic Water of the West Spitsbergen Current recirculating in the Fram Strait, and Arctic Atlantic Water returning from the different circulation loops in the Arctic Ocean all take part in the overflow. Denser water masses, such as the upper Polar Deep Water and the Canadian Basin Deep Water from the Arctic Ocean and Arctic Intermediate Water from the Greenland Sea, are occasionally present at the sill and could contribute the deepest part of the overflow plume. A comparison between hydrographic observations made during the Greenland Sea Project in the late 1980s and early 1990s and during the European Sub Polar Ocean Programme (ESOP) and Variability of Exchanges in the Northern Seas (VEINS) programmes in the late 1990s shows that the Greenland Sea Arctic Interme diate Water has largely replaced the Arctic Ocean deep waters. In the less dense fraction of the overflow the Recirculating Atlantic Water and Arctic Atlantic Water carried by the East Greenland Current have become more prominent than the Iceland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water. -
Global Ocean Meridional Overturning
2550 JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY VOLUME 37 NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE Global Ocean Meridional Overturning RICK LUMPKIN Physical Oceanography Division, NOAA/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida KEVIN SPEER Department of Oceanography, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida (Manuscript received 9 August 2005, in final form 9 January 2007) ABSTRACT A decade-mean global ocean circulation is estimated using inverse techniques, incorporating air–sea fluxes of heat and freshwater, recent hydrographic sections, and direct current measurements. This infor- mation is used to determine mass, heat, freshwater, and other chemical transports, and to constrain bound- ary currents and dense overflows. The 18 boxes defined by these sections are divided into 45 isopycnal (neutral density) layers. Diapycnal transfers within the boxes are allowed, representing advective fluxes and mixing processes. Air–sea fluxes at the surface produce transfers between outcropping layers. The model obtains a global overturning circulation consistent with the various observations, revealing two global-scale meridional circulation cells: an upper cell, with sinking in the Arctic and subarctic regions and upwelling in the Southern Ocean, and a lower cell, with sinking around the Antarctic continent and abyssal upwelling mainly below the crests of the major bathymetric ridges. 1. Introduction (WGASF 2001; Garnier et al. 2000; Josey 2001; Josey et al. 1999). The global pattern of wind and heat gain and Wind, and heat and freshwater fluxes at the ocean loss in these products is qualitatively consistent in the surface are, together with tidal and other energy Northern Hemisphere where the ocean gains heat in sources, responsible for the global ocean circulation, the Tropics and loses large amounts of heat in the mixing, and the formation of a broad range of water northern North Atlantic. -
Global Ocean Surface Velocities from Drifters: Mean, Variance, El Nino–Southern~ Oscillation Response, and Seasonal Cycle Rick Lumpkin1 and Gregory C
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH: OCEANS, VOL. 118, 2992–3006, doi:10.1002/jgrc.20210, 2013 Global ocean surface velocities from drifters: Mean, variance, El Nino–Southern~ Oscillation response, and seasonal cycle Rick Lumpkin1 and Gregory C. Johnson2 Received 24 September 2012; revised 18 April 2013; accepted 19 April 2013; published 14 June 2013. [1] Global near-surface currents are calculated from satellite-tracked drogued drifter velocities on a 0.5 Â 0.5 latitude-longitude grid using a new methodology. Data used at each grid point lie within a centered bin of set area with a shape defined by the variance ellipse of current fluctuations within that bin. The time-mean current, its annual harmonic, semiannual harmonic, correlation with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), spatial gradients, and residuals are estimated along with formal error bars for each component. The time-mean field resolves the major surface current systems of the world. The magnitude of the variance reveals enhanced eddy kinetic energy in the western boundary current systems, in equatorial regions, and along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, as well as three large ‘‘eddy deserts,’’ two in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. The SOI component is largest in the western and central tropical Pacific, but can also be seen in the Indian Ocean. Seasonal variations reveal details such as the gyre-scale shifts in the convergence centers of the subtropical gyres, and the seasonal evolution of tropical currents and eddies in the western tropical Pacific Ocean. The results of this study are available as a monthly climatology. Citation: Lumpkin, R., and G. -
High Seas Mediterranean Marine Reserves: a Case Study for the Southern Balearics and the Sicilian Channel
High Seas Mediterranean Marine Reserves: a case study for the Southern Balearics and the Sicilian Channel A briefing to the CBD’s Expert workshop on scientific and technical guidance on the use of biogeographic classification systems and identification of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction in need of protection Ottawa, 29 September–2 October 2009 Greenpeace International August 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents...........................................................................................................2 Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................................................4 Executive Summary.......................................................................................................5 1. Introduction................................................................................................................8 2. Existing research on the areas and availability of information................................10 3. Southern Balearics ...................................................................................................11 3.1 Area description.................................................................................................11 3.1.1 Main topographic features..........................................................................11 3.1.2. Currents and nutrients circulation system.................................................12 3.2 Topographic Features of Remarkable Biological relevance..............................14 3.2.1. Seamounts