Notes on global climate and ocean currents

The problems related to the role of both natural and anthropogenic factors in global climate change are considered. The role of ocean circulation in the Earth’s global thermodynamic processes is qualitatively analyzed. The balances of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and in the ocean and the effect of anthropogenic factors are analyzed. The requirements for new-generation models of the Earth’s climate are formulated.     

Celestial mechanical causes of weather and climate change

This paper is devoted to the synchronization of synoptic processes in the atmosphere with tidal oscillations in the Earth’s rotational speed discovered by the author. The causes and effects of the synchronization are explained. Data are given on the monthly revolution of the Earth, tidal oscillations in the Earth’s rotational speed, and the main lunisolar cycles. An explanation is proposed for the causes of the Mul’tanovskii elementary synoptic periods and the manifestations of 4- and 8-year cycles in the climate system. It is shown that the 35-year Brückner cycle is attributed to the beat of the annual solar (365 days) and annual lunar (355 days) oscillations in meteorological characteristics. An explanation is proposed for how the lunisolar tides may affect the air temperature, which is based on the interaction of the gravitational lunisolar tides with the radiation conditions in the atmosphere (due to changes in the cloud cover). A discussion is given of the relationship between the fluctuations in the climatic characteristics and the change in the Earth’s rotational speed on decadal time scales.     

The role of cosmic and ionospheric disturbances in global climatic changes and pipeline corrosion

Physical causes controlling the influence of the main cosmic factors on the state of the ionosphere and, further, on weather and climatic phenomena, including the global warming, are investigated. These investigations are based on the Rydberg excitation of the experimentally observed microwave radiation of the Earth’s ionosphere by energetic ionospheric electrons. This microwave radiation virtually freely penetrates into the lower atmosphere, providing channels for the influence of solar variability on terrestrial phenomena. The factors causing an anomalous wear of Russian pipeline systems are also analyzed, and the methods for reducing their rapid corrosion through taking into account the influence of heliogeomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances are described. Such investigations are supported by the space experiment on permanent monitoring of the factors controlling heliogeomagnetic activity, i.e., fluxes of ionizing radiation of the Sun and fluxes of electrons precipitating from the radiation belts.     

Long-term variations in global ozone

Monthly mean values of the global (averaged over the Earth’s surface) total ozone content (GO) are constructed on the basis of data of the global ozonometric network from 1964 to 2006, and their trends are calculated. A very strong relationship between the GO and solar activity, in particular, the index F10.7, is detected. This relation considerably exceeds the relation that solar activity has to other meteorological parameters. The unexpectedly strong GO decrease observed from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s cannot be explained by anthropogenic impact alone.     

Millennium scale environment changes of the Okhotsk Sea during last 80 kyr and their phase relationship with global climate changes

The paper presents the records of several paleoproductivity proxies (PP) (biogenic opal and Ba (Si_bio, Ba_bio), organic carbon (C_org) and carbonate Ca_carb, chlorin and benthic foraminifera abundance (BFA)) in sediments of the Okhotsk Sea for the last 80 kyr with a resolution of ∼100–300 years. The sediment age model was based on the AMS ¹⁴C data, records of benthic foraminifera δ¹⁸O, paleointensity of the Earth’s geomagnetic field and magnetic susceptibility. PP values demonstrate series of severe prolonged productivity drops in the Okhotsk Sea followed by a sharp increase during the last glaciation. On the basis of quantitative estimations of the paleoproductivity in the Okhotsk Sea during the cold MIS 2 and warm Holocene (Gorbarenko and Goldberg, 2005), it is suggested that the millennium scale relationship in productivity-climate changes of this basin was similar: an increase in the sea’s productivity was related with regional climate warming and vice-versa. The PP records of productivity/climate oscillations in the Okhotsk Sea during MIS 2–4 occurred contemporaneously with the North Atlantic cold Heinrich events (HE) and Greenland Dansgaard-Oyeshger interstadial (DOI). Observed successions of prolonged climate cooling events followed by rapid, abrupt warming are similar to climate and environmental oscillations in the N. Atlantic and Greenland, that confirms the millennium-scale climate changes synchronicities in the Northern Hemisphere including the far NW Pacific, the hydrology and climate conditions of which are close to those of the Okhotsk Sea. Synchronism of the N. Hemisphere severe cooling (including the Okhotsk Sea) with the Antarctic warming suggests that mechanisms of the “seesaw” effect (Blunier and Brook, 2001) in the low latitude heat redistribution between high latitudes of both hemispheres were more complicated than direct NADW formation forcing and encompasses the global atmospheric reorganization. Within the PP used a closer connection in the Okhotsk Sea millennium oscillations was observed for the C_org, BFA and chlorin; Ba_bio increases more closely to DOI. Si_bio variability does not show any evident correlation with productivity changes.     

Modelling of barotropic seiches in the Gulf of Izmir

In term of theory for natural oscillations, the paper considers the properties of barotropic seiches in the Gulf of Izmir. To solve an eigenvalue problem, the method of determining the periods of sea level vacillations and the latter’s spatial structure has been used. Model data have been applied to determine the spatio-temporal structure of the sea level’s natural vacillations for the basic energy-carrier periods. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Adaptive balance of global development processes

We study the processes of global self-regulation of Earth’s biota (GAIA-theory) by applying the method of adaptive balance of causes proposed by the authors. By using, as an example, the Daisy World model constructed by this method, we reveal the phenomenon of preservation of the mean temperature of Earth’s surface due to the presence of the vegetation cover. We develop an integral model of global natural, social, and economic processes in which the World Ocean is one of the factors regulating the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The decrease in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by the GAIA-effects increases the number of hurricanes and floods on the Earth. As a result, the levels of ecological and social hazards for the mankind become much higher. To eliminate these threats, it is necessary to intensify the processes of self-organization of the society realized via the improvement of education, development of science, and global regulation of the competition for natural resources. We present the results of numerical experiments performed by using the model demonstrating possible scenarios of global development with regard for the processes of self-organization of the society. __________ Translated From Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 3, Pp. 62–80, May–June, 2007.     

The influence of the gulf’s geometry on seiche oscillations in an enclosed basin

The finite-elements technique is applied to study the effect of a basin’s geometry (bays, harbours) and location of the characteristics of seiche oscillations in the basin and in the gulf proper. An increase of the length of the bay is shown to contribute to the periods of natural oscillations and to cause their restructuring. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

The Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter (OBT) – a technical article on a new instrument to monitor deep sea floor deformation and seismicity level

The Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter is a new 6000 m-depth deep sea instrument for autonomous observation of sea floor tilt with signal periods longer than 7.5 s. The instrument also records vertical acceleration in the frequency range from DC to 1 Hz. The tiltmeter has an Applied Geomechanics Inc. 756 wide angle biaxial bubble tilt sensor with a resolution of 1.0μ rad (0.2 arc second). A Kistler Corp. MEMS accelerometer of type Servo K-Beam 8330A2.5 with about 10⁻⁵m/s² resolution is used for the acceleration measurements. An Oceanographic Embedded Systems AD24 24 bit Sigma-Delta converter, which is controlled by a low-power Persistor Inc. embedded computer system of type CF 2, samples the data. The duration of tiltmeter operation is more than one year, which is controlled by the battery life. In our design the tiltmeter does not need active leveling devices, i.e., servo motors or other moving components to adjust sensors or frame. We designed the instrument for deployments by means of a remote operated vehicle. Since May 2005 the Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter has recorded sea floor deformation and seismicity level in the Logatchev hydrothermal vent field, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The tiltmeter is a part of the monitoring system of project ‘Logatchev Long-Term Environmental Monitoring,’ called LOLEM, of the German research program with the name ‘Schwerpunktprogramm 1144: Vom Mantel zum Ozean.’     

Water mass formation variability in the intermediate layer of the east sea

Long-term variability in the intermediate layer of the eastern Japan Basin has been investigated to understand the variability of water mass formation in the East Sea. The simultaneous decrease of temperature at shallower depths and oxygen increasing at deeper depths in the intermediate layer took place in the late 1960’s and the mid-1980’s. Records of winter sea surface temperatures and air temperatures showed that there were cold winters that persisted for several years during those periods. Therefore, it was assumed that a large amount of newly-formed water was supplied to the intermediate layer during those cold winters. Close analysis suggests that the formation of the Upper Portion of Proper Water occurred in the late 1960’s and the Central Water in the mid-1980’s.     

Greenhouse effect in planetary atmospheres caused by molecular symmetry breaking in intermolecular interactions

It is believed that the greenhouse effect is related to the parameters of absorption spectra of polyatomic molecules, usually trace gases, in planetary atmospheres. The main components of all known atmospheres of celestial bodies are symmetrical molecules that do not possess the dipole-allowed purely rotational (and in the case of diatomic molecules, vibrational–rotational) absorption spectrum. Upon increased pressure, a weak absorption appears, induced by intermolecular interaction, which can lead to a greenhouse effect. The contribution of the induced absorption in radiative forcing of a dense atmosphere may amount to a few or even tens of W/m². In conditions typical for the atmospheres of terrestrial planets (including paleoatmospheres), the collision-induced absorption and associated greenhouse effect may lead to an increase in surface temperature above the freezing point of water. There is a correlation between the temperature of an atmosphere and the intermolecular bonding energy of gases that dominate in planetary atmospheres of the Solar System.     

Regional geodynamic monitoring system for ensuring safety in geological and exploratory production of oil and gas

Global geodynamic processes have a significant influence on the tempo of human society development and can cause the complete devastation of large areas of the Earth and mass mortality in a number of catastrophic cases. Technogenous factors can sometimes trigger geodynamic events. The potential consequences of natural and technogenous disasters became apparent during the catastrophe on the Deepwater Horizon platform on April 20, 2010. This paper takes a brief look at some aspects of this disaster. The possibilities of preventing the similar events in the future are discussed here. For this purpose, the development of a geodynamics information system (IS-Geodynamics) based on a network of global (subglobal) monitoring of the Earth’s hydrogeodeformation (HGD) field, is suggested.     

Interaction of the reasons for the mass biota extinctions in the Phanerozoic

The consideration of the conditions during the mass extinctions has shown that a series of factors, including mutually independent tectonic movements, variations in the sea level and climate, volcanism, asteroid impacts, changes in the composition of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the dimming of the atmosphere by aerosols at volcanism and impact events, etc., had a harmful affect during some periods of time (a hundred thousand years to millions of years). Some of the listed events occurred for a long period of time and could not have caused the abrupt catastrophic death of organisms on a global scale. The examination of the hierarchy of the major events allows us to distinguish the primary terrestrial (volcanism) and cosmic (impact events) reasons for the mass extinctions. The coeval mutually independent events testify to the common external reasons for the higher order beyond the solar system. These events are suggested to be related with the orbital movement of the solar system around the galaxy’s center, the intersection of the galactic branches, and the oscillations of the solar system’s position relative to the galactic plane. These reasons influence the processes on the Earth, including the internal and external geospheres, and activate the impacts of asteroids and comets. Under their effect, two main subsequences of events are developed: terrestrial, leading to intense volcanism, and cosmic impact events. In both cases, harmful chemical elements and aerosols are vented to the atmosphere, thus resulting in the greenhouse effect, warming, the dimming of the atmosphere, the prevention of photosynthesis, the ocean’s stagnation, and anoxia with the following reduction of the bioproductivity, the destruction of the food chains, and the extinction of a significant part of the biota.     

The coastal profile in the eastern Gulf of Finland: The results of a survey and the reconstruction of the evolution in the Late Holocene

The studies carried out by the Karpinskii All-Russia Research Institute of Geology using side-scan profiling, echo sounding, and surface sediment sampling allowed revealing the detailed structure of the underwater coastal slope in the eastern Gulf of Finland. In particular, a submarine sand terrace was found at depths of 4–5 m. An attempt at the reconstruction of the coastal evolution over the period of the Late Holocene was made using mathematical modeling in order to explain the observed morphology of the submarine coastal slope. The key assumption of the concept suggested is that, at the earlier stage, the tectonic processes played the main role, while, at the later stage, the sea-level changes were of greater importance. The tectonic block comprising the investigated area of the Gulf of Finland at first rapidly increased and then it stabilized and was influenced by the sea level’s rise. These processes resulted in the formation of a series of terraces. The earlier of those are now located on dry land, while the later terraces are observed on the submarine slope. Within the concept proposed, the coastal evolution in the Late Holocene appears as a process of the gradual erosion of the above-water terraces and the formation of new underwater terraces. During the transgressive phases, the rate of the coast’s recession reached 0.5 m year⁻¹, while decreasing by a factor of two during the intermediate stages. The submarine terrace developed over the period of 3.2–1.2 thousand years ago, and it extended in equal measure due to the coast’s recession and the material’s accumulation near its external edge. During that period, the coast retreated by approximately 500 m, while the average accumulation rate could have been as high as 0.7 m³ m⁻¹ year⁻¹.     

Mass extinction of ocean organisms at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary: Effects and causes

At the end of the Permian, at the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic (251.0 ± 0.4 Ma), the largest mass extinction of organisms on the Earth occurred. Up to 96% of the species of marine invertebrates and ∼70% of the terrestrial vertebrates died off. A lot of factors were suggested and substantiated to explain this mass mortality, such as the disappearance of environmental niches in the course of the amalgamation of the continental plates into Pangea, sea level fluctuations, anoxia, an elevated CO₂ content, H₂S intoxication, volcanism, methane discharge from gas-hydrates, climate changes, impact events (collisions with large asteroids), or combinations of many of these reasons. Some of these factors are in subordination to others, while others are independent. Almost all of these factors developed relatively slowly and could not cause the sudden mass mortality of organisms globally. It could have happened when large asteroids, whose craters have been discovered lately, fell to the Earth. It is suggested that the impact events “finished off” the already suppressed biota. A simultaneous change in many of the factors responsible for the biodiversity, including those not connected in a cause-and-effect relationship, proves the existence of a common extrater-restrial cause that affected both the changes in the internal and external geospheres and the activation of asteroid attacks (the Sun’s transit of spiral arms of our galaxy, the Sun’s oscillations perpendicularly to the galactic plane, etc).     

Deep structure of the crust beneath the Sea of Okhotsk inferred from 3D seismic density modeling

Potential field anomalies of the Sea of Okhotsk region are analyzed for compiling a map of the basement’s tectonic structures. A 3D density model of the Earth’s crust is constructed using seismogeological and experimental-petrophysical data, which made it possible to obtain a visual image of main structures of the region reflecting the observable geophysical anomalies. The obtained data allow a domain located in the central part of the Sea of Okhotsk beyond the limits of the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation to be considered as a natural continuation of the continental shelf since the latter is structurally similar to western Kamchatka. The deep structural boundaries rise beneath the large sedimentary Deryugin and Tinro basins, which is characteristic of petroliferous basins.     

Origin and development of the morphological structure of the rift zone of slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges

Due to the complex transformation of the Earth’s crust in the rift valley, the morphology of the newly formed crust is changed by that of the province of rift mountains. The main factors of the variability of the morphological structure are as follows: the tectonomagmatic cyclicity of the geodynamic processes at the spreading centers and the isostatic uplift of the rift valley floor. The interchange of magmatic and tectonic cycles determines the difference in the bathymetric levels of the isostatic equilibrium at the edges of the rift valley slopes and the beginning of the formation of the topography of the province of rift mountains. This relief represents an indepth system of ridges and valleys rhythmically interchanging in the lateral direction. The morphology of the province of rift mountaines becomes the morphology of the acoustic basement throughout the ocean floor, except for the continental margins and areas of intraplate tectonics and volcanism.     

Shoreline migration and beach-nearshore sand balance over the last 200 years in Haifa Bay (SE Mediterranean)

Several researchers have investigated morphological changes on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast during the late Holocene. However, very few of these studies include quantitative data covering the last 200 years. In this study, topographical maps, nautical charts and aerial photographs are used to estimate the shoreline migrations and beach–nearshore sand balance over the last 200 years in Haifa Bay, Israel, the northernmost final depositional sink of the Nile littoral cell. The findings reflect two main periods. During the first period, between 1799 and 1928, human intervention along the bay’s coast was negligible, a significant coastal expansion of ∼50 to 150 m (averages of 0.4–1.2 m/year) was measured, and sand accumulation was estimated at ∼70,000 m³ annually in the beach–nearshore area. A dramatic change in the sedimentological pattern was observed during the second period, between 1928 and 2006, following the completion of Haifa Port’s main breakwater (1929–1933). During this period, most of the bay’s coast was in a steady state, with seasonal fluctuations of less than about ±20 m, and slight erosion of ∼7,000 m³ annually. These findings are consistent with previous studies which conclude that from approximately 4,000 years ago until the construction of Haifa Port, sea level remained relatively stable, and a continuous accumulation of Nile-derived sand dried up the Zevulun Plain and shifted the Haifa Bay shoreline westwards to its present location. This long-term trend ceased after completion of the Haifa Port main breakwater.     

On the effect that the direction of geostrophic wind has on turbulence and quasiordered large-scale structures in the atmospheric boundary layer

The dependence that the structure and intensity of turbulent and large-scale quasiordered eddies in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) have on the direction of geostrophic wind has been studied on the basis of a series of numerical experiments with a three-dimensional nonstationary model of high spatial resolution. The presence of the meridional component of the angular velocity of the Earth’s rotation results in a significant intensification of velocity fluctuations in a neutrally stratified turbulent flow during the easterly and northeasterly winds and in their decay during the westerly and southwesterly winds. This, in turn, results in significant variations in the mean velocity profile. It is shown that these variations are associated with the largest scale fluctuations and are comparable (in scale) to the depth of Ekman’s turbulent layer. It is found that, in the neutrally stratified ABL bounded in height and under stable stratification inside the ABL, the wind-direction dependence significantly decreases. The possibilities of parameterizing these effects in locally one-dimensional ABL models are discussed.