Multi-decadal trends in the tropical Pacific western boundary currents retrieved from historical hydrological observations

As large-scale ocean circulation is a key regulator in the redistribution of oceanic energy, evaluating the multi-decadal trends in the western Pacific Ocean circulation under global warming is essential for not only understanding the basic physical processes but also predicting future climate change in the western Pacific. Employing the hydrological observations of World Ocean Atlas 2018(WOA18) from 1955 to 2017, this study calculated the geostrophic currents, volume transport and multidecadal trends for the North Equatorial Current(NEC), the North Equatorial Countercurrent(NECC), the Mindanao Current(MC), the Kuroshio Current(KC) in the origin and the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent(NGCUC) within tropical western Pacific Ocean over multi-decades. Furthermore, this study examined the contributions of temperature and salinity variations. The results showed significant strengthening trends in NEC, MC and NGCUC over the past six decades, which is mainly contributed by temperature variations and consistent with the tendency in the dynamic height pattern. Zonal wind stress averaged over the western Pacific Ocean in the same latitude of each current represents the decadal variation and multi-decadal trends in corresponding ocean currents, indicating that the trade wind forcing plays an important role in the decadal trend in the tropical western Pacific circulation. Uncertainties in the observed hydrological data and trends in the currents over the tropical western Pacific are also discussed. Given that the WOA18 dataset covers most of the historical hydrological sampling data for the tropical western Pacific, this paper provides important observational information on the multi-decadal trend of the large-scale ocean circulation in the western Pacific.     

Targeted observation analysis of a Northwestern Tropical Pacific Ocean mooring array using an ensemble-based method

An important supplement for ocean observing systems, the Northwestern Tropical Pacific Ocean (NWTPO) mooring array including 15 moorings equipped with Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) devices was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deployed in 2013. This study assessed the performance of this mooring array in monitoring the intra-seasonal and low-frequency (above 91 days) variability of oceanic currents by conducting targeted observation analyses using an ensemble-based method. Key regions for monitoring intra-seasonal variability of the NWTPO circulation are the equator, Indonesian throughflow (ITF), headstream of the North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC), and Subtropical Countercurrent (STCC). For monitoring intra-seasonal variability, the range of each mooring is confined to a local scale. Therefore, NWTPO moorings cannot adequately resolve intra-seasonal variability in areas of the ITF, the headstream of the NECC, and STCC due to location constraints of the moorings. For monitoring low-frequency variability of NWTPO circulation, the key regions are the Western Boundary Current (WBC), NECC, and the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). NWTPO moorings performed relatively well in monitoring the low-frequency variability, as indicated by the strong background correlations between each of the currents. The NWTPO mooring array plays an important role in monitoring the location and intensity of background currents. Because moorings are costly and require a high-density distribution for optimal performance, understanding the multi-timescale dynamical nature of the NWTPO current system is critical for the deploying future moorings in this region.     

The evolution of the Kuroshio Current over the last 5 million years since the Pliocene: Evidence from planktonic foraminiferal faunas

Meridional heat transport of the western Pacific boundary current (the Kuroshio Current) is one of the key factors in global climate change. This current is important because it controls the temperature gradient between low latitudes and the North Pacific and so significantly influences mid-latitude atmosphere-ocean interactions. Here we reconstruct changes in hydrological conditions within the mid-latitude mainstream of the Kuroshio Current based on faunal analysis of planktonic foraminifera in core DSDP 296 from the Northwest Pacific Ocean. This approach enabled us to deduce evolutionary processes within the Kuroshio Current since the Pliocene. A total of 57 species in the coarser section (>150 µim) were identified; results indicate that planktonic foraminiferal faunal evolution has mainly been characterized by three major stages, the first of which comprised mixed-layer warm-water species of Globigerinoides ruber which first appeared between 3.5 and 2.7 Ma and then gradually increased in content. Percentages of another warm-water species of G. conglobatus also gradually increased in number over this interval. Variations in warm-water species indicate a gradual rise in sea surface temperature (SST) and imply initiation of Kuroshio Current impact on the Northwest Pacific Ocean since at least 3.5 Ma. Secondly, over the period between 2.7 and 2.0 Ma, thermocline species of Globigerina calida, Neogloboquadrina humersa, Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, and Pulleniatina obliquiloculata started to appear in the section. This fauna was dominated by G. ruber as well as increasing G. conglobatus contents. These features imply a further rise in SST and its gradually enhanced influence on thermocline water, suggesting strengthening of the Kuroshio Current since 2.7 Ma. Thirdly, between 2.0 Ma and present, increasing contents of thermocline species (i.e., G. calida, N. dutertrei and P. obliquiloculata) indicate a gradual rise in seawater temperature at this depth and also imply more intensive Kuroshio Current during this period. On the basis of comparative records from cores ODP 806 and DSDP 292 from the low latitude Western Pacific, we propose that initiation of the impact of the Kuroshio Current in the Northwest Pacific and it subsequent stepwise intensifications since 3.5 Ma can be closely related to the closure and restriction of the Indonesian and Central American seaways as well as variations in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) and equatorial Pacific region.

     

Effects of steep topography on the flow and stratification near Palmyra Atoll

Two interdisciplinary cruises aimed at relating the ecology of marine fish populations to oceanographic conditions were fielded during the late summer and late winter seasons near Palmyra Atoll (5.9°N, 162.1°W) in the Line Islands. Ocean current and hydrographic measurements revealed interaction of the flow with the steep topography. During the first cruise (August/September 1990) satellite-tracked surface drifters and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements showed a strong eastward setting North Equatorial Counter Current (NECC) with maximum speeds exceeding 1 m s^–1 at 80 m depth approximately. This current turned southeastward on closer approach to Palmyra. The drifter paths exhibited excursions with zonal wavelength of approximately 250 km, meridional amplitude of 25 km and period of approximately 5 days. During the second cruise (February/March 1992), the ADCP-derived speeds of the NECC were weaker (maxima approximately 33 cm s^–1) while the relative geostrophic flow component was of magnitude similar to 1990 and the signal of zonal geostrophic currents reached much deeper to approximately 650 m depth (150 m in 1990). Doming isopycnals beneath the surface mixed layer as well as thick (10–25 m) internal mixed layers were found near Palmyra during both cruises, with slightly different positions relative to the island. The discontinuous vertical temperature profiles may have been a result of strong boundary mixing due to breaking internal waves on Palmyras steep slopes. In the immediate vicinity of the island variations in flow speed, stratification and mixing in both the alongshore and cross-isobath directions were observed. Overall, the current speeds were reduced during February/March 1992, the peak time of the 1991–1993 warm event in the tropical Pacific. While parameters of turbulent two-dimensional wake theory are suggestive of formation and shedding of eddies in the lee of the island, no direct observations of circular motions were made in either expedition.Responsible Editor: Hans Burchard     

Long Wave Resonance in Tropical Oceans and Implications on Climate: the Atlantic Ocean

Based on the well established importance of long, non-dispersive baroclinic Kelvin and Rossby waves, a resonance of tropical planetary waves is demonstrated. Three main basin modes are highlighted through joint wavelet analyses of sea surface height (SSH) and surface current velocity (SCV), scale-averaged over relevant bands to address the co-variability of variables: (1) a 1-year period quasi-stationary wave (QSW) formed from gravest mode baroclinic planetary waves which consists of a northern, an equatorial and a southern antinode, and a major node off the South American coast that straddles the north equatorial current (NEC) and the north equatorial counter current (NECC), (2) a half-a-year period harmonic, (3) an 8-year sub-harmonic. Contrary to what is commonly accepted, the 1-year period QSW is not composed of wind-generated Kelvin and Rossby beams but results from the excitation of a tuned basin mode. Trade winds sustain a free tropical basin mode, the natural frequency of which is tuned to synchronize the excitation and the ridge of the QSWs. The functioning of the 1-year period basin mode is confirmed by solving the momentum equations, expanding in terms of Fourier series both the coefficients and the forcing terms. The terms of Fourier series have singularities, highlighting resonances and the relation between the resonance frequency and the wavenumbers. This ill-posed problem is regularized by considering Rayleigh friction. The waves are supposed to be semi-infinite, i.e. they do not reflect at the western and eastern boundaries of the basin, which would assume the waves vanish at these boundaries. At the western boundary the equatorial Rossby wave is deflected towards the northern antinode while forming the NECC that induces a positive Doppler-shifted wavenumber. At the eastern boundary, the Kelvin wave splits into coastal Kelvin waves that flow mainly southward to leave the Gulf of Guinea. In turn, off-tropical waves extend as an equatorially trapped Kelvin wave, being deflected off the western boundary. The succession of warm and cold waters transferred by baroclinic waves during a cycle leaves the tropical ocean by radiation and contributes to western boundary currents. The main manifestation of the basin modes concerns the variability of the NECC, of the branch of the South Equatorial Current (SEC) along the equator, of the western boundary currents as well as the formation of remote resonances, as will be presented in a future work. Remote resonances occur at midlatitudes, the role of which is suspected of being crucial in the functioning of subtropical gyres and in climate variability.     

Intra-seasonal and inter-annual variations in phytoplankton biomass,primary production and bacterial production at North West Cape,Western Australia: Links to the 1997–1998 El Niño event

Phytoplankton biomass, community and size structure, primary production and bacterial production were measured at shelf and continental slope sites near North West Cape, Western Australia (20.5°S–22.5°S) over two summers (October–February 1997–1998 and 1998–1999), and in April 2002. The North West Cape region is characterized by upwelling-favorable, southwesterly winds throughout the summer. Surface outcropping of upwelled water is suppressed by the geostrophic pressure gradients and warm low-density surface waters of the southward flowing Leeuwin Current. Strong El Niño (ENSO) conditions (SOI <0) prevailed through the summer of 1997–1998 which resulted in lower sea levels along the northwestern Australian coast and a weaker Leeuwin Current. La Niña conditions prevailed during the 1998–1999 summer and in April 2002. During the summer of 1997–1998, the North West Cape region was characterized by a shallower thermocline (nutricline), resulting in larger euphotic zone stocks of inorganic nitrogen and silicate over the continental slope. There was evidence for episodic intrusions of upper thermocline waters and the sub-surface chlorophyll maximum onto the outer continental shelf in 1997–1998, but not in 1998–1999. Pronounced differences in phytoplankton biomass, community size structure and productivity were observed between the summers of 1997–1998 and 1998–1999 despite general similarities in irradiance, temperature and wind stress. Phytoplankton primary production and bacterial production were 2- to 4-fold higher during the summer of 1997–1998 than in 1998–1999, while total phytoplankton standing crop increased by<2-fold. Larger phytoplankton (chiefly diatoms in the >10 μm size fraction) made significant contributions to phytoplankton standing crop and primary production during the summer of 1997–1998, but not 1998–1999. Although there were no surface signs of upwelling, primary production rates near North West Cape episodically reached levels (3–8 g C m⁻² day⁻¹) characteristic of eastern boundary Ekman upwelling zones elsewhere in the world. Bacterial production (0.006–1.2 g C m⁻² day⁻¹) ranged between 0.6 and 145 percent (median=19 percent) of concurrent primary production. The observed differences between years and within individual summers suggest that variations in the Leeuwin Current driven by seasonal or ENSO-related changes in the Indonesian throughflow region may have episodic, but significant influences on pelagic productivity along the western margin of Australia.     

Temporal variation of228Ra in the near-surface Gulf of Mexico

The Mn-fiber technique for extracting radium from seawater has proved useful for studying the marine geochemistry of²²⁸Ra. In the Gulf of Mexico, this technique was used to measure the surface and near-surface distribution of²²⁶Ra and²²⁸Ra. The observed surface distribution of²²⁸Ra, and particularly the radium activity ratio (228/226) can be explained by known circulation patterns, or, when local surface currents are not well understood, may provide insight into their general characteristics.The radium activity ratio has increased from 0.5 in 1968 to 0.7 in 1973 in the surface Gulf of Mexico. This observed increase cannot be attributed to known anthropogenic or natural source perturbations within the Caribbean Sea-Gulf of Mexico system. Possible causes include a change in the residence time for near-surface water, or variations in the relative dominance of the two sources for water entering the eastern Caribbean; the North Equatorial Current and the Guiana Current.The temporal distribution of²²⁸Ra is unstable and naturally variable over a time period less than or equal to five years in the Gulf of Mexico and by extrapolation, the Caribbean Sea. Therefore, its usefulness in calculations of eddy diffusion coefficients for these regions is greatly diminished.     

Three-dimensional structure of mesoscale eddies in the western tropical Pacific as revealed by a high-resolution ocean simulation

The three-dimensional structure of mesoscale eddies in the western tropical Pacific(6°S–20°N, 120°E–150°E)is investigated using a high-resolution ocean model simulation. Eddy detection and eddy tracking algorithms are applied to simulated horizontal velocity vectors, and the anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies identified are composited to obtain their three-dimensional structures. The mean lifetime of all long-lived eddies is about 52 days, and their mean diameter is 147 km. Two typical characteristics of mesoscale eddies are revealed and possible dynamic explanations are analyzed. One typical characteristic is that surface eddies are generally separated from subthermocline eddies along the bifurcation latitude(~13°N) of the North Equatorial Current in the western tropical Pacific, which may be associated with different eddy energy sources and vertical eddy energy fluxes in subtropical and tropical gyres. Surface eddies have maximum swirl velocities of 8–9 cm s~(-1) and can extend to about 1500 m depth. Subthermocline eddies occur below 200 m, with their cores at about 400–600 m depth, and their maximum swirl velocities can reach 10 cm s~(-1). The other typical characteristic is that the meridional velocity component of the eddy is much larger than the zonal component. This characteristic might be due to more zonal eddy pairs(two eddies at the same latitude),which is also supported by the zonal wavelength(about 200 km) in the high-frequency meridional velocity component of the horizontal velocity.     

Influence of the Coriolis force on the formation of a seasonal thermocline

Large eddy simulation (LES) reveals that the Coriolis force plays an important role in seasonal thermocline formation. In the high-latitude ocean, a seasonal thermocline is formed at a certain depth, across which the downward transports of heat and momentum are prohibited. On the other hand, in the equatorial ocean, heat and momentum continue to propagate downward to the deeper ocean without forming a well-defined thermocline. Mechanism to clarify the latitudinal difference is suggested. The depth of a seasonal thermocline h is scaled in terms of both the Ekman length scale λ and the Monin–Obukhov length scale L, as h ??? 0.5(Lλ)^1/2, which is in contrast to the earlier suggestion as h?∝?L.     

210Pb in GEOSECS water profiles from the North Pacific

Ten GEOSECS profiles from the North Pacific have been analyzed for²¹⁰Pb. GEOSECS²²⁶Ra data on the same profiles are used to calculate²¹⁰Pb excess or deficiency relative to secular equilibrium. The resultant profiles are divisible into a thermocline zone (<2000m) showing an expected decrease with depth, a mid-water zone of about 2000 m showing small constant deficiencies with a zone of increasing deficiency to a bottom zone of about 1000 m having the highest deficiency virtually invariant with depth. The exponentially decreasing portion in the thermocline yields a “diffusion” coefficient of 3 cm²/s. The mid-water deficiencies yield ? model residence times of 400 years northeast of Hawaii decreasing to 100 years at the most marginal stations.     

LASG耦合气候系统模式FGCM-1.0

本文描述了中国科学院大气物理研究所大气科学和地球流体力学数值模拟国家重点实验室(LASG)最新发展的一个耦合气候系统模式的基本性能. 该模式是在LASG灵活的全球耦合气候系统模式（英文缩写为FGCM）的初始版本FGCM-0的基础上发展而来的,是该系列耦合模式的第二个版本,即FGCM-1.0. FGCM-1.0通过一个通量耦合器将大气、海洋和海冰三个分量模式耦合在一起,其中海洋分量模式是LASG发展的一个涡相容分辨率（eddy-permitting）全球海洋环流模式,大气和海冰分量模式则为美国国家大气研究中心（NCAR）的大气环流模式CAM2和海冰模式CSIM4. 耦合模式完整地考虑了海气界面上的动量、热量和淡水通量交换,尽管在模式中没有使用任何形式的人为的通量调整或者通量距平方案,模式还是比较合理地模拟出基本的气候形态. 通过对该耦合模式长期积分结果的进一步分析发现,模式能够比较好地模拟出厄尔尼诺－南方涛动（ENSO）以及印度洋偶极子事件的基本特征;与FGCM系列耦合模式的最初版本FGCM-0相比,FGCM-1.0模拟的北赤道逆流（NECC）和ENSO循环更加真实.     

Radium-228 profile at the second Geosecs intercalibration station, 1970, in the North Atlantic

²²⁸Ra concentrations were measured in 12 subsurface water samples collected during August–September 1970 in the North Atlantic at the Second Geosecs Intercalibration Station.²²⁸Ra concentrations ranged from 1.5 to 2.1 dpm/100 kg in the water layer between 100 and 600 m depth, above the main thermocline, but decreased with increasing depth to less than 0.5 dpm/100 kg at 1.5 km, below the main thermocline. The two deepest samples, collected below 4 km depth, indicated that the²²⁸Ra concentration increased again to at least 1.2 dpm/100 kg as the interface with the sea floor sediments was approached. Above the 4 km level, the²²⁸Ra profile was roughly similar to the tritium profile measured by Roether and Münnich.     

Larval connectivity of harbours via ocean currents: A New Zealand study

Non-indigenous marine species (NIMS) are likely to be introduced into harbours by ballast water discharge or hull fouling, and then spread by natural means in the nearshore/shelf circulation. Reanalysis currents from the Australian Bluelink modelling project are used with particle-tracking to estimate the potential dispersal kernels for major New Zealand ports. A random walk term is added to the particle-tracking algorithm to account for missing variability in the numerical model currents. With few data to validate the model, the choice of added diffusivity is made by comparing simulated dispersal with observed dispersal of Global Program drifters. Histograms of the dispersal times between the ports are computed, along with estimates of the 10⁻¹ and first percentile dispersal times, which are taken as proxies for the minimum dispersal time between the ports. The 10⁻¹ percentile times range from 1 day (e.g., Bay of Islands to Whangarei) to several months (Tauranga to Chatham Islands). We identify eight geographical regions, based on the coastal currents and present kernels for a representative port in each region, along with tables of the 10⁻¹ and first percentile dispersal times for all ports. The regions are: (1) northeast coast of the North Island (influenced by the East Auckland Current), (2) east coast of the North Island (East Cape Current), (3) west coast of the North Island (West Auckland Current/Taranaki Bight circulation), (4) Cook St (circulation in Cook St), (5) east coast of the South Island (Southland Current), (6) west coast of the South Island (Westland Current), (7) Fiordland (Subtropical Front/Southland Current), and (8) the Chatham Islands.     

Analysis of STCC eddies using the Okubo–Weiss parameter on model and satellite data

The North Pacific Subtropical Counter Current (STCC) is a weak zonal current comprising of a weak eastward flow near the surface (with speeds of less than 0.1 m/s and a thickness of approximately 50–100 m) and westward flow (the North Equatorial Current) beneath. Previous studies (e.g., Qiu J Phys Oceanogr 29: 2471–2486, 1999) have shown that the STCC is baroclinically unstable. Therefore, despite its weak mean speeds, nonlinear STCC eddies with diameters ~300 km or larger and rotational speeds exceeding the eddy propagation speeds develop (Samelson J Phys Oceanogr 27: 2645–2662, 1997; Chelton et al. Prog Oceanogr 91: 167–216, 2011). In this study, the authors present numerical experiments to describe and explain the instability and eddy-generation processes of the STCC and the seasonal variation. Emphasis is on finite-amplitude eddies which are analyzed based on the parameter of Okubo (Deep-Sea Res 17: 445–454, 1970) and Weiss (Physica D 48: 273–294, 1991). The temperature and salinity distribution in March and April offer the favorable condition for eddies to grow, while September and October are unfavorable seasons for the generation of eddies. STCC is maintained not only by subsurface front but also by the sea surface temperature (SST) front. The seasonal variation of the vertical shear is dominated by the seasonal surface STCC velocity. The SST front enhances the instability and lead to the faster growth of STCC eddies in winter and spring. The near-surface processes are therefore crucial for the STCC system.     

South Atlantic circulation in a world ocean model

The circulation in the South Atlantic Ocean has been simulated within a global ocean general circulation model. Preliminary analysis of the modelled ocean circulation in the region indicates a rather close agreement of the simulated upper ocean flows with conventional notions of the large-scale geostrophic currents in the region. The modelled South Atlantic Ocean witnesses the return flow and export of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) at its northern boundary, the inflow of a rather barotropic Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) through the Drake Passage, and the inflow of warm saline Agulhas water around the Cape of Good Hope. The Agulhas leakage amounts to 8.7 Sv, within recent estimates of the mass transport shed westward at the Agulhas retroflection. Topographic steering of the ACC dominates the structure of flow in the circumpolar ocean. The Benguela Current is seen to be fed by a mixture of saline Indian Ocean water (originating from the Agulhas Current) and fresher Subantarctic surface water (originating in the ACC). The Benguela Current is seen to modify its flow and fate with depth; near the surface it flows north-westwards bifurcating most of its transport northward into the North Atlantic Ocean (for ultimate replacement of North Atlantic surface waters lost to the NADW conveyor). Deeper in the water column, more of the Benguela Current is destined to return with the Brazil Current, though northward flows are still generated where the Benguela Current extension encounters the coast of South America. At intermediate levels, these northward currents trace the flow of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) equatorward, though even more AAIW is seen to recirculate poleward in the subtropical gyre. In spite of the model’s rather coarse resolution, some subtle features of the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence are simulated rather well, including the latitude at which the two currents meet. Conceptual diagrams of the recirculation and interocean exchange of thermocline, intermediate and deep waters are constructed from an analysis of flows bound between isothermal and isobaric surfaces. This analysis shows how the return path of NADW is partitioned between a cold water route through the Drake Passage (6.5 Sv), a warm water route involving the Agulhas Current sheeding thermocline water westward (2.5 Sv), and a recirculation of intermediate water originating in the Indian Ocean (1.6 Sv).     

A quick cooling event of the East Asian monsoon responding to Heinrich Event 1: Evidence from stalagmite δ<Superscript>18</Superscript>O records

Based on TIMS U-series dating results and annual band counting method, an annual-resolution time scale from 17450 to 14420 aBP has been established for a stalagmite from the Hulu Cave at Tangshan, Nanjing. A high-resolution oxygen isotopic record reveals decadral-centural oscillations in air temperature in the East Asian monsoon climate area during the last glacial maximum. The most conspicuous feature in the oxygen isotopic record in the period is the particular cold event synchronized with the last Heinrich event (H1) in the northern Atlantic deep-sea records. This particular cold event, beginning at 16140 ± 100 aBP, shows a rapid cooling down with a magnitude of 7–8°C in air temperature within 36 years. Furthermore, δ¹⁸O record demonstrates that the event lasted 790 years with gradually warming tendency (10 cycles of air temperature oscillations) after the remarkable cooling down. We believed that this unique pattern of event recorded in the stalagmite δ⁸O might be controlled by various factors including changes of insolation at mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere, the southern extend of the last ice-rafted event in the North Atlantic and changes of the Equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature.     

A new barotropic model of the wind-driven circulation

Rationalized by the observational circulation pattern in the upper ocean of the North Pacific, meridional friction term is first incorporated in a barotropic theoretical model of the wind-driven circulation. The governing potential vorticity equation thence has β term and wind stress curl term (the two of the Sverdrup balance), zonal friction term and meridional friction term. The analytical solution satisfactorily captures many important features of the wind-driven circulation in the North Pacific: Kuroshio, Oyashio, Kuroshio extension, North Equatorial Current, and especially the eastern boundary currents in the North Pacific, i.e. California current and Alaska current.     

Penetrative convection in the upper ocean due to surface cooling

Abstract

A new non-linear model of mixing and convection based on a modelling of two buoyant interacting fluids is applied to penetrative convection in the upper ocean due to surface cooling. In view of simple algebra, the model is one-dimensional. Dissipation is included, but no mean shear is present. A non-similar analytical solution is found in the case of a well-mixed layer bounded below by a sharp thermocline treated as a boundary layer. This solution is valid if the Richardson number, R _i , defined as the ratio of the total mixed-layer buoyancy to a characteristic rms vertical velocity, is much greater than unity. The model predicts a deepening rate proportional to R _i ^?3/4. The thermocline remains of constant thickness, and the ratio thermocline thickness to mixed-layer depth decreases as R _i ^?3/4 as the mixed layer deepens. If the surface flux is constant, the mixed-layer depth increases with time as t ^½. The vertical structure throughout the mixed layer and thermocline is given by the analytical solution, and vertical profiles of mean temperature and vertical fluxes are plotted. Computed profiles and available laboratory data agree remarkably well. Moreover, the accuracy of the simple analytical results presented here is comparable to that of sophisticated turbulence numerical models.     

Methods for estimating the velocities of the Brazil Current in the pre-salt reservoir area off southeast Brazil (23∘ S–26∘ S)

The Brazil Current (BC) is likely the least observed and investigated subtropical western boundary current in the world. This study proposes a simple and systematic methodology to estimate quasi-synoptic cross-sectional speeds of the BC within the Santos Basin (23^° S–26^° S) based on the dynamic method using several combinations of data: Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD), temperature profiles, CTD and vessel-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (VMADCP), and temperature profiles and VMADCP. All of the geostrophic estimates agree well with lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP) velocity observations and yield volume transports of -5.56 ±1.31 and 2.50 ±1.01 Sv for the BC and the Intermediate Western Boundary Current (IWBC), respectively. The LADCP data revealed that the BC flows southwestward and is ～100 km wide, 500 m deep, and has a volume transport of approximately -5.75 ±1.53 Sv and a maximum speed of 0.59 m s^?1. Underneath the BC, the IWBC flows northeastward and has a vertical extent of approximately 1,300 m, a width of ～60 km, a maximum velocity of ～0.22 m s?¹, and a volume transport of 4.11 ± 2.01 Sv. Our analysis indicates that in the absence of the observed velocities, the isopycnal (σ ₀) of 26.82 kg m^?3 (～500 dbar) is an adequate level of no motion for use in geostrophic calculations. Additionally, a simple linear relationship between the temperature and the specific volume anomaly can be used for a reliable first estimate of the BC-IWBC system in temperature-only transects.     

Lead concentrations in the northeast Pacific: evidence for global anthropogenic perturbations

Lead concentrations were determined by isotope dilution mass spectrometry in 34 surface- and deep-water samples collected in the northeast Pacific between Hawaii and California and off the California coast using a deep-water sampler protected against fouling by contamination from the ship and hydrowire. Measured concentrations lie more than one order of magnitude below previously published open ocean values and they show that in most cases 90% or more of the total lead is in a dissolved form. Lead concentrations are about 10-fold higher in surface and thermocline waters than in deep waters; values drop as low as 1 ng/kg (5 pmol/kg) below 3500 m depth. Lead profiles thus appear different compared to those of most trace metals, which show enrichment in deep waters compared to surface concentrations. Lead concentrations in surface waters increase from 5 to 15 ng/kg (25 to 75 pmol/kg) along a transect starting from a location 200 km off the California coast and continuing towards the center of the North Pacific Gyre. This increase is congruent with that observed for²¹⁰Pb concentrations in the same waters sampled at the same time.Lead is supplied to the open North Pacific largely from the atmosphere, at a rate of about 60 ng/cm² yr, which exceeds the prehistoric oceanic output flux of authigenic lead recorded in pelagic sediments about tenfold. This excess originates from emissions from smelters and combustion of leaded gasoline, overwhelming natural lead inputs that entered the ocean during prehistoric time probably largely through rivers. Vertical lead concentration profiles below the surface mixed layer are probably not in steady state. There, concentrations must be increasing in response to the increase of anthropogenic inputs because the estimated lead residence times are more than 20 years in the thermocline and about 80 years in deep waters. Based on an estimated 10-fold input and concentration increase since the mid-eighteenth century in the surface mixed layer in the central northeast Pacific, it is calculated that the 10 ng/kg average concentration between 100 and 900 m is 2 to 5 times larger, and the 1.8 ng/kg average concentration between 900 and 5000 m depth is about 2 times larger than it was in the mid-eighteenth century. Profiles of lead concentrations in the North Atlantic are expected to be shifted generally to larger values by a factor of 2 to 3 compared to those in the North Pacific because of the effects of greater industrial lead contamination, while lead concentration profiles in the South Pacific are expected to be shifted generally to lower values compared to the North Pacific by about this same factor because of the effects of lesser industrial lead contamination.