Identifying and quantifying nonconservative energy production/destruction terms in hydrostatic Boussinesq primitive equation models

This paper seeks to illustrate the point that physical inconsistencies between thermodynamics and dynamics usually introduce nonconservative production/destruction terms in the local total energy balance equation in numerical ocean general circulation models (OGCMs). Such terms potentially give rise to undesirable forces and/or diabatic terms in the momentum and thermodynamic equations, respectively, which could explain some of the observed errors in simulated ocean currents and water masses. In this paper, a theoretical framework is developed to provide a practical method to determine such nonconservative terms, which is illustrated in the context of a relatively simple form of the hydrostatic Boussinesq primitive equation used in early versions of OGCMs, for which at least four main potential sources of energy nonconservation are identified; they arise from: (1) the “hanging” kinetic energy dissipation term; (2) assuming potential or conservative temperature to be a conservative quantity; (3) the interaction of the Boussinesq approximation with the parameterizations of turbulent mixing of temperature and salinity; (4) some adiabatic compressibility effects due to the Boussinesq approximation. In practice, OGCMs also possess spurious numerical energy sources and sinks, but they are not explicitly addressed here.Apart from (1), the identified nonconservative energy sources/sinks are not sign definite, allowing for possible widespread cancellation when integrated globally. Locally, however, these terms may be of the same order of magnitude as actual energy conversion terms thought to occur in the oceans. Although the actual impact of these nonconservative energy terms on the overall accuracy and physical realism of the oceans is difficult to ascertain, an important issue is whether they could impact on transient simulations, and on the transition toward different circulation regimes associated with a significant reorganization of the different energy reservoirs. Some possible solutions for improvement are examined. It is thus found that the term (2) can be substantially reduced by at least one order of magnitude by using conservative temperature instead of potential temperature. Using the anelastic approximation, however, which was initially thought as a possible way to greatly improve the accuracy of the energy budget, would only marginally reduce the term (4) with no impact on the terms (1), (2) and (3).     

Energetics of lateral eddy diffusion/advection：Part Ⅰ. Thermodynamics and energetics of vertical eddy diffusion

Two important nonlinear properties of seawater thermodynamics linked to changes of water density, cabbeling and elasticity(compressibility), are discussed. Eddy diffusion and advection lead to changes in density; as a result, gravitational potential energy of the system is changed. Therefore, cabbeling and elasticity play key roles in the energetics of lateral eddy diffusion and advection. Vertical eddy diffusion is one of the key elements in the mechanical energy balance of the global oceans. Vertical eddy diffusion can be conceptually separated into two steps: stirring and subscale diffusion. Vertical eddy stirring pushes cold/dense water upward and warm/light water downward; thus, gravitational potential energy is increased. During the second steps, water masses from different places mix through subscale diffusion, and water density is increased due to cabbeling. Using WOA01 climatology and assuming the vertical eddy diffusivity is equal to a constant value of 2×103 Pa2/s, the total amount of gravitational potential energy increase due to vertical stirring in the world oceans is estimated at 263 GW. Cabbeling associated with vertical subscale diffusion is a sink of gravitational potential energy, and the total value of energy lost is estimated at 73 GW. Therefore, the net source of gravitational potential energy due to vertical eddy diffusion for the world oceans is estimated at 189 GW.     

The international legal framework for the management of the global oceans social-ecological system

This paper evaluates the international agreements in place for the protection of the environment and the regulation of human activities taking place in world's oceans and seas. 500 multilateral agreements were reviewed against a framework of reference, grounded on the theoretical approaches of Adaptive Management and Transition Management. According to this framework, oceans complex systems management should: (1) consider the global oceans as a Social-Ecological System (SES); (2) aim to achieve or maintain their ecological resilience; and (3) implement iterative, learning-based management strategies, supported by science-based advice to policy and management. The results show that the present international legal framework for the global oceans does not require countries to adopt an adaptive, complex systems approach for global oceans ecological resilience. Instead, this study supports the perspective of a double fragmentation among international agreements. First, global agreements focus on issue-based objectives for determined human activities, ecological components or anthropogenic pressures. Second, regional agreements have a wider scope, but also a varying level of inclusion of ecological resilience considerations. There is the need to foster the inclusion of such an approach into existing and future international agreements and their implementation, including through soft-law, project-based initiatives at global and regional scales.     

深水盆地油气勘探新领域

全球海域深水区已成为油气增长的新领域。根据国内外深水油气勘探概况和我国深水盆地的油气地质条件认为，我国海域珠江口盆地珠二坳陷、琼东南盆地中央坳陷、潮汕坳陷及台西南盆地深水区、南海西南海域深水区和冲绳海槽盆地是我国海域深水盆地油气勘探的远景区。     

小波分析与解析延拓方法相结合研究东海深部构造

东海是环太平洋活动构造带的重要组成部分,是探讨西太平洋边缘及边缘海形成演化的重要窗口。向上延拓主要用来削弱局部异常,突出深部异常,小波分析是重磁场位场分解的有效工具,不仅能提取深部异常,还能更好地将区域异常和局部异常分离。本文利用东海及邻域最新的布格重力异常数据资料,将小波分析与解析延拓方法相结合,分析对比向上延拓20 km的布格重力异常结果与小波分析4阶逼近布格重力异常结果,结合东海及邻域莫霍面的深度,对重力场及莫霍面深度进行初步研究。其中小波4阶逼近结果代表莫霍面形态,小波4阶细节结果代表东海及邻域凹陷凸起形态。     

The rôle of the complete Coriolis force in cross-equatorial flow of abyssal ocean currents

Ocean currents flowing close to or across the equator are strongly constrained by the change in sign of f, the locally vertical component of the Earth’s rotation vector, across the equator. We investigate these currents using a shallow water model that includes both the locally vertical and locally horizontal components of the Earth’s rotation vector, thus accounting for the complete Coriolis force. We therefore avoid making the so-called “traditional approximation” that retains only the part of the Coriolis force associated with the locally vertical component of the rotation vector. Including the complete Coriolis force contributes an additional term to the fluid’s potential vorticity, which may partially balance the change in sign of f as fluid crosses the equator over suitably shaped bathymetry.We focus on the Antarctic Bottom Water, which crosses the equator northwards in the western Atlantic ocean where the local bathymetry forms an almost-zonal channel. We show that this bathymetry facilitates the current’s equatorial crossing via the action of the “non-traditional” component of the Coriolis force. We illustrate this process using both analytical and numerical solutions for flow of an abyssal current over idealised equatorial topography. We also consider the one-dimensional geostrophic adjustment of a body of fluid across the equator, and show that the “non-traditional” contribution to the fluid’s angular momentum permits a larger cross-equatorial transport. These results underline the importance of including the complete Coriolis force in studies of the equatorial ocean, particularly in the weakly-stratified abyssal ocean where the non-traditional component is most pronounced.     

An explicit approximation to the wavelength of nonlinear waves

An explicit and concise approximation to the wavelength in which the effect of nonlinearity is involved and presented in terms of wave height, wave period, water depth and gravitational acceleration. The present approximation is in a rational form of which Fenton and Mckee's (1990, Coastal Engng 14, 499–513) approximation is reserved in the numerator and the wave steepness is involved in the denominator. The rational form of this approximation can be converted to an alternative form of a power-series polynomial which indicates that the wavelength increases with wave height and decreases with water depth. If the determined coefficients in the present approximation are fixed, the approximating formula can provide a good agreement with the wavelengths numerically obtained by Rienecker and Fenton's (1981, J. Fluid Mech. 104, 119–137) Fourier series method, but has large deviations when waves of small amplitude are in deep water or all waves are in shallow water. The present approximation with variable coefficients can provide excellent predictions of the wavelengths for both long and short waves even, for high waves.     

IHS变换与小波变换相结合的ETM+影像融合技术

多分辨率影像融合技术已广泛应用于遥感影像处理方面,针对ETM＋多光谱影像和全色影像融合中存在的光谱失真现象,提出了一种改进的ETM＋影像融合方法。该方法首先对多光谱影像进行IHS变换;然后将全色影像进行小波分解,利用亮度分量替换小波分解后的近似分量,进行小波逆变换得到新的亮度分量;最后进行IHS逆变换得到融合影像。试验结果表明,融合后的影像在保持多光谱信息和提高空间分辨率上均能获得较好的效果。     

Energy features of plural tropical cyclogenesis from multispectral satellite observations

Energy features of the succession of interrelated tropical cyclones (plural cyclogenesis) in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere (the southern part of the Indian Ocean and the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean) over February 2008 are comprehensively analyzed on the basis of the method of combining different-scale data of the infrared and radio thermal satellite sounding. The data of infrared thermal channels of the geostationary Meteosat-7 satellite and the results of reconstruction of integral water vapor from data of the AMSR-E microwave complex of the Aqua satellite were used. The analysis showed that the region where water vapor has an increased integral concentration is the most effective channel for pumping the latent heat energy from the tropics into midlatitudes. Each cyclone captures this region from the tropical zone and retains it throughout the entire stage of its own evolution with the aid of the jet spiral bridge. The quantitative estimates of the latent energy of the central equatorial region of water vapor in the intratropical convergence zone (ITCZ) of the Indian and Pacific oceans were a basically new result, as well as the detection of considerable time variations in the latent heat associated with the ejection of coherent water-vapor regions into high latitudes by plural cyclogenesis.     

Water masses and decadal variability in the East Sea (Sea of Japan)

Water masses in the East Sea are newly defined based upon vertical structure and analysis of CTD data collected in 1993–1999 during Circulation Research of the East Asian Marginal Seas (CREAMS). A distinct salinity minimum layer was found at 1500 m for the first time in the East Sea, which divides the East Sea Central Water (ESCW) above the minimum layer and the East Sea Deep Water (ESDW) below the minimum layer. ESCW is characterized by a tight temperature–salinity relationship in the temperature range of 0.6–0.12 °C, occupying 400–1500 m. It is also high in dissolved oxygen, which has been increasing since 1969, unlike the decrease in the ESDW and East Sea Bottom Water (ESBW). In the eastern Japan Basin a new water with high salinity in the temperature range of 1–5 °C was found in the upper layer and named the High Salinity Intermediate Water (HSIW). The origin of the East Sea Intermediate Water (ESIW), whose characteristics were found near the Korea Strait in the southwestern part of the East Sea in 1981 [Kim, K., & Chung, J. Y. (1984) On the salinity-minimum and dissolved oxygen-maximum layer in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), In T. Ichiye (Ed.), Ocean Hydrodynamics of the Japan and East China Seas (pp. 55–65). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers], is traced by its low salinity and high dissolved oxygen in the western Japan Basin. CTD data collected in winters of 1995–1999 confirmed that the HSIW and ESIW are formed locally in the Eastern and Western Japan Basin. CREAMS CTD data reveal that overall structure and characteristics of water masses in the East Sea are as complicated as those of the open oceans, where minute variations of salinity in deep waters are carefully magnified to the limit of CTD resolution. Since the 1960s water mass characteristics in the East Sea have changed, as bottom water formation has stopped or slowed down and production of the ESCW has increased recently.     

The development of world oceans & coasts and concepts of sustainability

The current phase of technological development and expansion in the world economy is leading to greater human activity and development offshore. Some have described this as the colonisation of the oceans, one phase in the wider history of world industrialisation. This study empirically tests notions of ‘industrialisation’ and ‘colonisation’ in the oceans for the first time. It finds that human activity in the oceans has increased by multiple factors in the most recent long term wave of economic development. The methods include the combined use of Raster and R! to overcome methodological challenges to analyse large spatial datasets which map the footprint of human activity. In response to increasing human activity in the oceans, nations and supranational institutions are developing new governance regimes. These regimes are characterised by policy integration and a commitment to sustainability. Sustainable development is a central tenet of most national and international policies for the world's oceans. An analysis of sustainable development terminology within coastal and ocean policy is provided for seven major maritime governance regimes: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, EU, South Africa, UK and the US. The results show that sustainability is highly differentiated in the context of ‘the blue planet’ (oceans and coasts). The diverse interpretations of sustainability present an impasse to measuring progress in the field. Therefore the paper concludes by offering a framework for explanation and interpretation of sustainable development, by linking it to foundational assumptions held by systems of thought or philosophical traditions.     

Constructing an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean using slippery sacks

This paper documents the continued development and testing of a new Lagrangian oceanic general circulation model. The slippery sacks ocean model (SSOM), which represents a body of water as a pile of conforming parcels, is improved and is used to simulate circulations in homogeneous oceans and in an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean.A method for including horizontal mixing in the SSOM is presented. A given sack’s nearest neighbors are identified in the positive and negative x- and y-directions, and the sack exchanges momentum and/or tracers with these neighbors. This formulation of mixing is straightforward to implement, computationally efficient, and it produces results similar to a standard Eulerian finite-difference representation of diffusion.The model’s ability to reproduce the Stommel and Munk solutions to the classical western boundary current problem is tested. When steps are taken to reduce the potential energy barrier to sacks crossing one another, the model generates circulations that are consistent with linear theory. In moderately non-linear regimes the model produces appropriate departures from linear solutions including a boundary current that continues along the northern boundary for a time.Taking advantage of the new mixing scheme and lessons learned from simulations of homogeneous oceans, the authors construct an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean. They compare simulations conducted with the SSOM to similar simulations conducted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm). The SSOM and the MITgcm produce similar wind-forced gyres, thermocline structure, and meridional overturning. The SSOM is also used to explore how circulations change in the limit when tracer diffusion goes to zero.     

An explicit approximation to the wavelength of nonlinear waves

An explicit and concise approximation to the wavelength in which the effect of nonlinearity is involved and presented in terms of wave height, wave period, water depth and gravitational acceleration. The present approximation is in a rational form of which Fenton and Mckee's (1990, Coastal Engng 14, 499–513) approximation is reserved in the numerator and the wave steepness is involved in the denominator. The rational form of this approximation can be converted to an alternative form of a power-series polynomial which indicates that the wavelength increases with wave height and decreases with water depth. If the determined coefficients in the present approximation are fixed, the approximating formula can provide a good agreement with the wavelengths numerically obtained by Rienecker and Fenton's (1981, J. Fluid Mech. 104, 119–137) Fourier series method, but has large deviations when waves of small amplitude are in deep water or all waves are in shallow water. The present approximation with variable coefficients can provide excellent predictions of the wavelengths for both long and short waves even, for high waves.     

Wavelet analysis for processing of ocean surface wave records

Wavelet analysis is a relatively new technique and in the recent years enormous interest in application of wavelets has been observed. This modern technique is particularly suitable for non-stationary processes as in contrast to the Fourier transform, (FT), the wavelet transform (WT) allows exceptional localization, both in time and frequency domains. The wavelet transform has been successfully implemented in signal and image processing, ordinary and partial differential equation theory, numerical analysis, communication theory and other fields. On the other hand, the application of the WT to ocean engineering and oceanography is rare. In this paper the WTs capability to give a full time–frequency representation of the wave signals is demonstrated. The processing of the time series of the non-stationary deep water waves, waves breaking at the tropical coral reefs and mechanically generated waves in the wave flume demonstrates the ability of the wavelet transform technique to detect a complex variability of these signals in the time–frequency domain. Various spectral representations resulting from the wavelet transform are discussed and their application for wave signals is shown.     

海洋监测设备实验水槽的环境动力参数I.典型海域

为海洋监测设备实验水槽的设计和模型实验的开展提供动力环境方面的依据,分析了中国近海和各大洋典型海域浪、流、风等环境要素的特征,对中国近海给出环境要素特征量的平均值和最大观测值,对大洋给出统计的最大概率对应的要素值和1%概率大值;模拟能力评估显示,实验水槽对浪、流、风均具有很好的模拟能力,可满足今后对海洋监测设备开展的各类模型实验需要。     

Habitat temperature ranges of azooxantellate scleractinian corals in the World Ocean

Based on the study of the scleractinian azooxantellate corals sampled during many marine expeditions of Russian research vessels in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, habitat temperature ranges of their species were first estimated with compiling of temperature series according to the growing thermophility. The temperature series compiled for these oceanic basins consist of 35, 17 and 10 species, respectively. The confinement of scleractinian species to particular water masses is revealed. These data are thought to be useful for reconstructing ecological and oceanological characteristics in the past geological epochs, since coral species exist for millions years. For example, the temperature series established for scleractinian species may be used for reconstructing water temperatures in Cenozoic oceans and, probably, for determining geological ages for some coral species.     

Chemical and Biological Studies of Particulate Organic Matter in the Ocean

This paper presents a review of the past decade's highlights of research on the isolation and characterisation of particulate organic matter (POM) in the world's oceans. The emphasis is on chemical studies but, in keeping with the growing interdisciplinary nature of marine science, advances in other disciplines are also discussed, particularly those in biological sciences. Increasing evidence for the importance of picoplankton, bacteria and viruses as POM constituents is highlighted, including the recent recognition of large populations of autotrophic bacteria able to harvest light for energy. The transport of POM to bottom waters was thought to be largely confined to large, rapidly sinking faecal pellets. However, recent studies have highlighted the importance of organic aggregates and flocs formed by diatoms such as Rhizosolenia and other microalgae. Ascending particles have also been discovered, many of which are lipid-rich. Several studies have shown that resuspension of bottom sediments and lateral advection of material from continental shelves can lead to anomalously high particle fluxes measured in sediment traps moored in deep water. Many new approaches for characterizing POM have emerged, such as pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and direct temperature-resolved mass spectrometry for analysis of higher molecular weight materials and biopolymers. Lipid biomarker techniques have also advanced, exciting new possibilities being raised by the ability to measure stable and radioactive carbon isotopes for individual compounds. The techniques of molecular biology, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are being increasingly applied to provide complementary information to more conventional microscopy and flow cytometry on the identity of organisms in the sea. The combination of these techniques with advanced chemical analysis methods promises to greatly increase our knowledge of the origins, transport and fate of organic matter in the oceans. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Argo: A new tool for environmental monitoring and assessment of the world’s oceans, an example from the N.E. Pacific

Argo is an international project that is deploying profiling drifters in all of the oceans of the world, with the exception of the Arctic Ocean. Though still in its implementation phase the Argo array is now supplying an impressive amount of data which offers new opportunities to assess and monitor the environmental status of many regions of the world oceans. Recently, changes in the Gulf of Alaska have been documented by other means that suggest large changes in the T/S relationships and related changes in nutrient supply and productivity. This paper examines these unusual changes to demonstrate the use of the Argo database to determine the physical status of an ecosystem. While the methods of analysis are general, they are here specifically applied to the N.E. Pacific Ocean. We show how it is possible to monitor the baroclinic geostrophic circulation fields in near real-time and correlate these changes with alterations in the stratification of the upper water column.     

Spectral analysis of marine geoid heights and ocean depths: Constraints on models of lithospheric and sublithospheric processes

Cross-spectral analysis has been used to study the relationship between geoid and bathymetry in 16°×16° blocks in the oceans. The admittances resulting from this analysis have been compared with thermomechanical models of the lithosphere and sublithosphere in order to determine modes of topographic compensation in different parts of the oceans. Peak admittances at short wavelengths (<800 km) indicate that loads are supported by the mechanical strength of the lithosphere, while peak admittances at long wavelengths (>800 km) are indicative of lithospheric cooling or dynamic sublithospheric processes. Models of upper mantle convection predict higher admittances at long wavelengths than do models of lithospheric cooling. In most areas the observed admittances can be explained by models of the thermomechanical properties of the lithosphere, but in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the northern Indian Ocean, and over the Cape Verde Rise high long-wavelength admittances are evidence for the existence of upper mantle convection.     

Development of wavelet network model for accurate water levels prediction with meteorological effects

Accurate water levels modeling and prediction is essential for safety of coastal navigation and other maritime applications. Water levels modeling and prediction is traditionally developed using the least-squares-based harmonic analysis method that estimates the harmonic constituents from the measured water levels. If long water level measurements are not obtained from the tide gauge, accurate water levels prediction cannot be estimated. To overcome the above limitations, the current state-of-the-art artificial neural network has recently been developed for water levels prediction from short water level measurements. However, a highly nonlinear and efficient wavelet network model is proposed and developed in this paper for water levels modeling and prediction using short water level measurements. Water level measurements (about one month and a week) from six different tide gauges are employed to develop the proposed model and investigate the atmospheric changes effect. It is shown that the majority of error values, the differences between water level measurements and the modeled and predicted values, fall within the −5 cm and +5 cm range and root-mean-squared (RMS) errors fall within 1–6 cm range. A comparison between the developed highly nonlinear wavelet network model and the harmonic analysis method and the artificial neural networks shows that the RMS of the developed wavelet network model when compared with the RMS of the harmonic analysis method is reduced by about 70% and when compared with the RMS of the artificial neural networks is reduced by about 22%. It is also worth noting that if the atmospheric changes effect (meteorological effect) of the air pressure, the air temperature, the relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction are considered, the performance accuracy of the developed wavelet network model is improved by about 20% (based on the estimated RMS values).