Impact of spatial resolution on simulated surface water mass transformations in the Atlantic

We analyze the water mass transformation in coarse (1°) and high (1/6°) resolution ocean simulations with the identical configuration of the CLIPPER model and interannual ERA15 forcing function. Climatological characteristics of surface water mass transformation in the two experiments are quite different. The high resolution experiment exhibits a stronger surface transformation in equatorial and tropical regions, in the Gulf Stream area and in the location of the formation of Subtropical Mode Water (STMW), associated with high levels of eddy kinetic energy. The coarse resolution experiment shows a better representation of the transformation rates corresponding to the densest subpolar mode waters and Labrador Sea Water (LSW). This is explained by the differences in lateral mixing procedures between high and coarse resolution experiments. The high resolution 1/6° run is eddy-resolving only in the tropics and mid-latitudes. In these areas eddies are found to enhance the process of water mass transformation compared to the isopycnal diffusion used to parameterized the eddies in the 1° model. Despite its 1/6° resolution, the high resolution model does not adequately represent eddies in the subpolar gyre and Labrador Sea. In these areas the high resolution model fails to correctly simulate water mass transformation because the lateral mixing (provided through the bi-harmonic sub-gridscale parameterization) of newly ventilated waters with surrounding waters is not efficient enough. In contrast in the coarse 1° resolution model, the strong lateral mixing and the unrealistically broad boundary currents imposed by the high diffusivity required for numerical stability mixes newly formed LSW waters with the warmer and saltier waters of the rim current. Finally, it results in a more effective representation of the surface water mass transformation in high latitudes in the 1° model. A possible impact of the increased lateral diffusion in high resolution experiment on the representation of re-stratification in the Labrador Sea was studied in sensitivity experiments with different lateral diffusion coefficients compared to the regional eddy-resolving 1/15° simulation in the subpolar North Atlantic. If the eddies are not resolved in subpolar latitudes (as in the case of 1/6° model), the GM90 parameterization with the coefficient close to 800 m² s⁻¹ provides the closest agreement with the solution of eddy-resolving 1/15° model.     

Optimum multiparameter analysis of the water mass structure in the Atlantic Ocean thermocline

An analysis of the water mass structure of the Atlantic Ocean central layer is conducted by applying optimum multiparameter (OMP) analysis to an expansive historical data set. This inverse method utilises hydrographic property fields to determine the spreading and mixing of water masses in the permanent thermocline. An expanded form of OMP analysis is used, incorporating Redfield ratios and pseudo-age to correct for the non-conservative behaviour of oxygen and nutrients over large oceanic areas.Three water masses are considered to contribute to the central layer of the Atlantic Ocean. One of these is formed in each hemisphere of the Atlantic Ocean and the other advects around the southern tip of Africa from its formation region in the Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is analysed on a fine three-dimensional grid so that at every grid point the relative contributions of each water mass and the pseudo-age are determined.The model is remarkably successful in verifying many accepted circulation features in the Atlantic Ocean, including the large-scale circulations of the subtropical gyres, the zonal flows of equatorial currents at the equator, and a cross-equatorial flow of the water masses formed in the southern hemisphere near the western boundary. The inter-hemisphere flow is so important that almost half of the thermocline waters in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are supplied by the two water masses formed in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This provides support for an upper-layer replacement path for the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water. Further east, the sharp front at about 15°N between North and South Atlantic Central Waters is clearly discriminated throughout the thermocline. The central waters of the South Atlantic thermocline are found to be highly stratified, with central water formed in the Indian Ocean underlying the South Atlantic Central Water. At around 5°N a strong upwelling zone is identified in which the central water formed in the Indian Ocean penetrates towards the surface. The pseudo-age results allow pathways for the flow of water masses to be inferred, and clearly identify circulation features such as the subtropical gyres, the Equatorial Undercurrent, and the shadow zones in the eastern equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Water mass renewal in these shadow zones occurs on considerably longer time scales than for the well-ventilated subtropical gyres.     

Acoustic properties of surface water masses in the tropical Atlantic and their seasonal variability

The peculiarities of the vertical hydroacoustic structure of surface water masses in the tropical Atlantic are reported. The near-surface acoustic channel in areas of strong freshening of oceanic waters by continental discharge and rainfall is studied. Quantitative characteristics of the seasonal variability of the channel's parameters are given. The mechanism responsible for the long-range acoustic conductivity in the upper layer of waters is analysed. The areas of maximum horizontal refraction in the near-surface layer are identified and the refraction angles of acoustic rays determined.Translated by V. Puchkin.     

Decadal water mass variations along 20°W in the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean

Water mass variations in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean along 20°W are analyzed with pentadal resolution over the past 15 years using data from four repeat occupations of a meridional hydrographic section running south from Iceland. The section was sampled in 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003. The results are interpreted in the context of changes in air–sea forcing, ocean circulation, and water properties associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO index oscillated around zero from 1984 to 1988, was strongly positive from 1989 to 1995, after which it shifted to lower positive, and occasionally negative values from 1996 to 2003. Previously published studies suggest that after the 1995–1996 shift of the NAO, the subpolar gyre largely retreated to the northwest in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, resulting in an increasingly southeastern character of local water masses with time. Water property changes extending from the SubPolar Mode Water (SPMW) just below the seasonal pycnocline through the density range shared by Mediterranean Outflow Water and SubArctic Intermediate Water (SAIW) along 20°W are consistent with changes in wind-driven ocean circulation and air–sea heat flux associated with shifts in the NAO, especially after accounting for ocean memory. After periods of lower NAO index the SPMW is warmer, saltier, and lighter. At these same times, large increases of apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) and potential vorticity are found at the SPMW base, consistent with SPMW ventilation to lighter densities during lower NAO index periods. Deeper and denser in the water column, the cold, fresh, and dense SAIW signature within the permanent pycnocline that was most strongly present in 1993, near the culmination of a period of high NAO index, is much reduced in 1988 and 1998. In 2003, after a prolonged period of lower NAO index, increasing influence of warmer, saltier subtropical waters is clear within the permanent pycnocline. The deep penetration of the changes implies that they are caused primarily by circulation changes resulting from NAO-associated wind shifts, but changes in air–sea heat flux could also have played a role.     

变水深对畸形波及其时频能量谱的影响

使用VOF (volume of fluid)方法实现了变化水深条件下畸形波的数值模拟,使用小波分析方法计算模拟结果的时频能量谱,发现变化水深可以加强波浪的非线性相互作用,使转化到高频端的能量更多,产生了不对称程度更大的畸形波.     

中高空间分辨率宽波段光学卫星传感器参数赤潮探测影响研究

中高空间分辨率宽波段光学卫星已成为赤潮监测的主要数据源,但与水色卫星传感器不同,中高空间分辨率卫星传感器主要面向陆地应用,其波段数量少、宽度大,由此对赤潮探测带来的影响尚待研究。为此,本文基于不同优势种赤潮实测高光谱数据、时空同步的GF-1 WFV2、GF-1 WFV3传感器影像、Sentinel-2A MSI传感器影像及GF-6 WFV传感器影像,探究了波段设置、光谱响应函数、信噪比及空间分辨率对赤潮探测的影响,并分析了红边波段赤潮探测优势。结果表明：波段设置对赤潮探测影响大,特别是红光波段和红边波段的中心波长和波段宽度;波段设置相同的情况下,赤潮探测精度受光谱响应函数的影响大,受信噪比的影响较小;空间分辨率对赤潮探测的影响较大,空间分辨率的提升有助于提高赤潮探测的精度。红边波段赤潮探测实验表明,较之红光波段,基于红边波段的赤潮探测具有明显的优势,平均F1-Score提高了11%。本文的研究结果一方面可为赤潮中高空间分辨率卫星探测的数据选取提供理论依据,另一方面可为中高空间分辨率卫星传感器的设计提供参考。     

季节因素对大西洋声传播的影响分析

以分析季节对大西洋声传播的影响为研究目的,应用WOA13季节平均数据和Mackenzie声速经验公式,分析了大西洋声道轴和表层声速值的四季分布情况,再利用BELLHOP水声学数值模型,在设定的声源频率1 000 Hz和掠射角15°～-15°情况下,仿真计算选用位置点5 m深度声源的四季声传播情况,研究结果表明:按照实际的季节,大西洋会聚区波导的反转深度,冬季最小,春季增大,夏季最大,秋季再减小.在中低纬度的典型声速剖面下,夏季会聚区跨度最大,秋季和冬季递减,春季最小,第一会聚区的四季跨度差在1 km内.在高纬度的正梯度声速剖面下,夏季声传播距离最远,秋季减小,冬季最近,春季增大,且传播距离的差别较大.各变化规律均以四季循环更替的形式出现.     

Impact of pulsed Atlantic water inflow into the Alboran Basin at the time of the Zanclean flooding

The study of more than 500 single- and multichannel seismic records enabled the generation of a detailed palaeo-bathymetric map of the Messinian surface over most of the Alboran Basin, Western Mediterranean. This regional surface is characterized by several erosional features (channels, terraces and canyons) and topographic highs (structural, volcanic and diapiric in origin). The most prominent feature is the incised Zanclean Channel crossing the entire basin, its entrenchment having been associated with the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar and subsequent inflow of Atlantic waters. The incision depth of the channel is variable, suggesting local variations in the erosive capacity of the Atlantic inflow, conditioned mainly by the regional basin topography and the local presence of topographic highs. Adjacent to this channel along the Spanish and Moroccan margins, and near the Strait of Gibraltar, several submarine terraces developed at different depths suggest a pulsed flooding of the Alboran Basin. There could have been two major inflow phases of Atlantic water, one shortly before and another during the Zanclean flooding, the latter accompanied by periods of relative sea-level stillstands that enabled terrace development. Alternatively, these features were all generated during the main flooding evident and subsequent pulsed infilling of the basin.     

New perspectives on eighteen-degree water formation in the North Atlantic

In this report, eighteen-degree water (EDW) formation will be discussed, with emphasis on advances in understanding emerging within the past decade. In particular, a recently completed field study of EDW (CLIMODE) is suggesting that EDW formation within a given winter can have at least two different dominant physics and distinct locations: one type formed in the northern Sargasso Sea, largely away from the strong flows of the Gulf Stream where 1D physics may apply, and a second type formed along the southern flank of the Gulf Stream, in a region where the background vorticity of the flow and cross-frontal mixing play key roles in the convective formation process.     

Deep North Atlantic freshening simulated in a coupled climate model

The observed recent freshening trend in the deep North Atlantic and the Labrador Sea is investigated in three forced ensembles and a long control simulations using the HadCM3 coupled ocean–atmosphere–sea-ice climate model. The 40 yr freshening trend during the late half of the 20th century is captured in the all forcings ensemble that applies all major external (natural and anthropogenic) forcing factors. Each ensemble has four members with different initial conditions taking from the control run at a 100 yr interval. No similar freshening trend is found in each of the four corresponding periods of the control simulation. However, there are five large freshening events in a 1640 yr period of the control run, each following a sudden salinity increase. A process analysis revealed that the increase in salinity in the Labrador Sea is closely linked to deep convections while the following freshening trend is accompanied by a period of very weak convective activities.The fact that none of the five large freshening events appears in the four corresponding periods following the initial conditions of the four members of the all forcings ensemble suggest that external forcings may have contributed to triggering the events. Further analyses of two other ensemble simulations (natural forcings only and anthropogenic forcings only) have shown that natural rather than anthropogenic factors are responsible. Based on our model results, we can not attribute the simulated freshening to anthropogenic climate change.     

The effects on water mass formation of surface mixed layer timedependence and entrainment fluxes

An air-sea buoyancy flux out of the ocean between the surface outcroppings of different isopycnals must be balanced by a convergence of advective and diffusive fluxes of buoyancy across those isopycnals (Walin, 1982; Tziperman, 1986; Garrett et al., 1995). For steady conditions, the diapycnal diffusive flux due to vertical mixing in the surface mixed layer is very small, so that the advective buoyancy flux dominates (Speer, 1993; Garrett et al., 1995). The associated advective buoyancy flux can then be used to estimate the volume flux of water out of the base of the surface mixed layer. The resulting thermodynamic algorithm provides a valuable estimate of water mass formation in the ocean.In contrast, for the time-dependent real ocean with horizontal and vertical gradients of the horizontal buoyancy gradient, diurnal and seasonal mixed layer deepening and entrainment in the presence of a buoyancy jump at the base of the mixed layer contributes to the annual volume flux out of the base of the deepest (wintertime) mixed layer. The mismatch between the predictions of the ideal algorithm and measured rates of water mass formation (Speer, 1997) may thus be partly due to mixed layer processes rather than diapycnal mixing in the thermocline.     

Fine spatial structure of the North Atlantic current's western boundary

The results of an analysis of the distribution of the thermohaline characteristics in the frontal zone of the North Atlantic current area near 46°00' N are reported, the spatial resolution being 2–2.5 miles. Minor structural features of the frontal zone have been observed, characterized by the occurrence of intrusions of diverse origin. The intrusive fine structure was found to be inherent only to the near-frontal area and is incapable of penetrating through the boundary of the current's main jet.Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Comparison of high spatial resolution trace metal distributions with model simulations for surface waters of the Gulf of Cadiz

A multidisciplinary study in the Gulf of Cadiz is revisited, using additional diagnostic modelling tools. The dissolved trace metal (Cu, Ni, Zn, Co) distributions in the Gulf of Cadiz are analysed using modelled tracer evolutions, field observations and the concept of tracer ages. This study shows that a significant part of the observed metal distributions can be explained by the metal inputs of three river systems (Guadiana, Rio Tinto and Odiel, Guadalquivir) discharging into the Gulf of Cadiz, while the remainder of the signal is most likely associated with the benthic metal remobilisation along the shelf of this coastal region.     

Hydrological conditions of water mass subduction in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (Cruise 43 of the R/VAkademik Vernadsky)

This paper reports some results of a large-scale survey conducted in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean on the WOCE project. The weather conditions, the structure of the upper mixed layer, the water circulation and thermohaline structure, as well as the potential vorticity distribution in the test area, are described.Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

高分辨率海水表层二氧化碳分压重构以大西洋为例

海洋是自然界中重要的碳汇,海−气二氧化碳通量通常利用大气和海水表层的二氧化碳分压（pCO₂）差进行估算。受制于时空分布不均匀的观测样本和预测数据,目前已有海水表层二氧化碳分压的重构结果在空间分辨率上仍有较大可提升空间。为在高空间分辨率下更好地拟合时空变化,基于表层大洋二氧化碳地图（SOCAT）的海水表层二氧化碳逸度（f CO₂）数据集和遥感卫星等多源数据,利用XGBoost模型建立了海水表层二氧化碳分压值与海洋物理、生物、光学等要素的非线性关系,并根据样本时空频率构建权重模型,最终重构了2000−2018年大西洋0.041 7°×0.041 7°下月度海水表层二氧化碳分压分布。预测结果的相关系数为0.966,均方根误差为8.087 μatm,平均偏差为4.012 μatm,与同类重构结果相比,海水表层二氧化碳分压的时空变化趋势一致性强,且在空间分辨率上具有优势。     

Recent changes in the North Atlantic circulation simulated with eddy-permitting and eddy-resolving ocean models

Three eddy-permitting (1/4°) versions and one eddy-resolving (1/12°) version of the OCCAM ocean model are used to simulate the World Ocean circulation since 1985. The first eddy-permitting simulation has been used extensively in previous studies, and provides a point of reference. A second, improved, eddy-permitting simulation is forced in the same manner as the eddy-resolving simulation, with a dataset based on a blend of NCEP re-analysis and satellite data. The third eddy-permitting simulation is forced with a different dataset, based on the ERA-40 re-analysis data. Inter-comparison of these simulations in the North Atlantic clarifies the relative importance of resolution and choice of forcing dataset, for simulating the mean state and recent variability of the basin-scale circulation in that region. Differences between the first and second eddy-permitting simulations additionally reveal an erroneous influence of sea ice on surface salinity, dense water formation, and the meridional overturning circulation. Simulations are further evaluated in terms of long-term mean ocean heat transport at selected latitudes (for which hydrographic estimates are available) and sea surface temperature errors (relative to observations). By these criteria, closest agreement with observations is obtained for the eddy-resolving simulation. In this simulation, there is also a weak decadal variation in mid-latitudes, with heat transport strongest, by around 0.2 PW, in the mid-1990s. In two of the eddy-permitting simulations, by contrast, heat transport weakens through the study period, by up to 0.4 PW in mid-latitudes. The most notable changes of heat transport in all simulations are linked to a weakening of the subpolar gyre, rather than changes in the meridional overturning circulation. It is concluded that recent changes in the structure of mid-latitude heat transport in the North Atlantic are more accurately represented if eddies are explicitly resolved.     

Specific features of the field of surface temperature in the Tropical Atlantic

On the basis of generalization of the data of many-year hydrological observations and the data of meteorological satellites accumulated in recent years, we characterize some specific features of the surface temperature in the Tropical Atlantic. The influence of solar radiation, local heat balance, and the advective and diffusion heat transfer on the temperature of the water surface is analyzed. The mechanism of formation of the thermohalocline and local sites of elevated temperature near the estuaries of large rivers (such as the Amazon, Orinoco, Mississippi, Congo, and Niger) is described. We also characterize the formation of the seasonal variability of the near-equatorial temperature maximum, equatorial temperature minimum, and equatorial divergence rate. __________ Translated from Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 6, pp. 28–38, November–December, 2007.