Response of the Gulf Stream transport to characteristic high and low phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation

We investigate an ambiguity in the current understanding of the Gulf Stream (GS) transport in response to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). While some investigations (discussed herein) suggest enhanced transport during low NAO phases, other studies suggest enhanced transport in high NAO phases. NAO-induced variability in the western North Atlantic is studied by using a 1/6°-resolution basin-scale Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) model. Results indicate that the western boundary current limb of the GS, upstream of Cape Hatteras, exhibit enhanced transport during low-NAO phases. However, further downstream of Cape Hatteras, after the GS separates from the coast, diminished GS transport is seen during low-NAO phases. The converse is true for high NAO phases for both segments of the GS system. Model results show the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC), the northern recirculation gyre and the southern recirculation gyre intensify (weaken) during the high (low) NAO periods.     

火山活动对于北大西洋涛动的激发作用

为了探索北大西洋涛动形成的大尺度大气物理场背景条件和外部强迫因子,通过对比分析、相关分析和环流系统温压场垂直结构分析得到:(1)强火山活动指数距平与冰岛低压和亚速尔高压海平面气压场(SLP)距平总体相关函数符号相反,强火山活动指数与冰岛低压SLP为反相关,与亚速尔高压SLP为正相关,就是说火山活动指数异常引起了高纬度冰岛低压和中低纬度亚速尔高压海平面气压场相反的变化趋势,形成高低纬之间海平面气压场反相振荡;(2)夏季7月亚速尔高压对流层中下层至海平面,温度距平中心和位势高度距平中心距平符号大致正正相对负负相对,说明夏季亚速尔高压为深厚暖性系统,低层温度升高亚速尔高压加强,低层温度降低亚速尔高压减弱,所以火山活动指数与亚速尔高压SLP均呈反相关关系;冬季1月对流层中下层至海平面,温度距平和位势高度距平符号大致正负相对,说明冬季亚速尔高压为浅薄系统,低层温度升高亚速尔高压减弱,低层温度降低亚速尔高压加强,所以火山活动指数与亚速尔高压SLP均呈正相关关系;(3)冬季1月冰岛低压对流层中下层至海平面,温度距平中心和位势高度距平中心距平符号大致正正相对负负相对,说明冬季冰岛低压为深厚冷性系统,低层温度升高冰岛低压减弱,低层温度降低冰岛低压加深,所以火山活动指数与冰岛低压SLP均呈反相关关系;夏季7月对流层中下层至海平面,温度距平和位势高度距平符号大致正负相对,说明夏季冰岛低压为浅薄系统,低层温度升高冰岛低压减弱,低层温度降低冰岛低压加深,所以火山活动指数与冰岛低压SLP均呈正相关关系;(4).由于对流层中下层至海平面冰岛低压和亚速尔高压冬、夏季温压场结构特点基本相反,火山活动指数异常在两个环流系统中引起了相反响应,导致高低纬之间海平面气压场反相振荡,形成了影响广泛的著名的北大西洋涛动现象。     

Dissolved iodine across the Gulf Stream Front and in the South Atlantic Bight

The distributions of iodide, iodate and total iodine were determined along a transect from the Sargasso Sea and across the Gulf Stream to the continental shelf of the South Atlantic Bight during November 1990. The western boundary of the Gulf Stream at the outer shelf-upper slope was characterized by steeply sloping isotherms and isopleths of iodide and iodate, resulting from a dome of cold water that was rich in iodate and nearly devoid of iodide at the slope. Both the mid and the inner shelf were relatively well mixed vertically. The concentration of iodate in the surface waters decreased shoreward from >0.3 μM in the Sargasso Sea/Gulf Stream/outer shelf, to 0.29 μM in the midshelf, 0.19 μM in the outer-inner shelf and 0.11 /IM in the inner-inner shelf. Concomitantly, the concentration of iodide increased from <161 nM to 175 nM, 257 nM and 300 nM. The concentration changes were more abrupt in the inner-inner shelf within about 30 km from the shore. There was no evidence of significant concentrations of organic iodine. These distributions of iodide and iodate suggest that the South Atlantic Bight may act as a geochemical processor of dissolved iodine. Iodate is added to the shelf during topographically induced upwelling and frontal exchange with the Gulf Stream. In the shelf waters, iodate is reduced to iodide in situ. Iodide is exported from the shelf to the Gulf Stream which may eventually further transport it to the ocean interior. A ☐ model calculation suggests that 28% and 43% of the iodate added to the Bight and the inner shelf, respectively, are converted to another form in these waters, almost all of which is iodide. About a third of the reduction of iodate to iodide in the Bight occurs in the inner shelf. Thus, the inner shelf may be the most geochemically active zone within the Bight. The residence times of iodide relative to its production and that of iodate relative to its removal are 3.1 and 3.6 months in the Bight and 0.9 and 1.8 months in the inner shelf.     

The Continuous Plankton Recorder survey and the North Atlantic Oscillation: Interannual- to Multidecadal-scale patterns of phytoplankton variability in the North Atlantic Ocean

At interannual to multidecadal time scales, much of the oceanographic and climatic variability in the North Atlantic Ocean can be associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). While evidence suggests that there is a relationship between the NAO and zooplankton dynamics in the North Atlantic Ocean, the phytoplankton response to NAO-induced changes in the environment is less clear. Time series of monthly mean phytoplankton colour values, as compiled by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey, are analysed to infer relationships between the NAO and phytoplankton dynamics throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. While a few areas display highly significant (p < 0.05) trends in the CPR colour time series during the period 1948–2000, nominally significant (p < 0.20) positive trends are widespread across the basin, particularly on the continental shelves and in a transition zone stretching across the Central North Atlantic. When long-term trends are removed from both the NAO index and CPR colour time series, the correlation between them ceases to be significant. Several hypotheses are proposed to explain the observed variability in the CPR colour and its relationship with climate in the North Atlantic.     

Influence of the interaction between the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean on the Gulf Stream

Numerical experiments with the circulation model of the North Atlantic based on the splitting algorithms in the σ-coordinate system with a spatial resolution allowing for reproducing synoptic eddies were performed in two versions: with the Arctic Ocean and without it (boundary along 78°N). They showed that the account for the water exchange with the Arctic is fundamentally important for reproducing jet dynamics at the western boundary of the Atlantic down to the subtropical zone. The influence of the conditions at the liquid boundary that separates the Atlantic and the Arctic extends not only over the subarctic area [29] but is also “transferred” by the Labrador Current and the Slope Water Current (SWC) to the area of the Gulf Stream proper. One cannot properly describe the detachment of the Gulf Stream from the coast without adequate reproducing of the Labrador Current and SWC. An hypothesis is posed that the location of the detachment region at 35°N is caused by strong vertical motions at the interface between the SWC and the Gulf Stream jet with horizontal velocities that are almost equal to those at the exit from the Florida Strait. A comparison of the model circulation with that retrieved from the hydrological data and the drift of neutral buoyancy floats [14, 22] showed both qualitative and quantitative coincidences of the features of the northward warm water transfer such as the streamline around the so-called northwestern “corner” (motion “along the topography”) and the jet-wise transport of these waters from Labrador to the northeast inside a kind of “pipeline,” which is limited in the upper baroclinic layer 1 km thick by mean velocity contour lines of about 10 cm/s. A comparison between the experimental [19] and model fields of the ocean level showed that, at the absence of direct representation of the water (mass) exchange between the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, the decrease of the gradient velocities in the Gulf Stream may reach 30%.     

Influence of North Atlantic Oscillation on Moscow Climate Continentality

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - The natural variability of regional climatic conditions poses certain difficulties in detecting global climate change at a local scale. The question...     

Thermohaline Structure of Waters in the North Atlantic in Different Phases of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - The meridional structure of climatic trends and anomalies of potential temperature and salinity in the North Atlantic waters in different periods of the...     

Dissolved iron(III) speciation in the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean

On voyages in the Iceland Basin in 2007 and 2009, we observed low (ca. 0.1 nM) total dissolved iron concentrations [dFe] in surface waters (<150 m), which increased with depth to ca. 0.2–0.9 nM. The surface water [dFe] was low due to low atmospheric Fe inputs combined with biological uptake, with Fe regeneration from microbial degradation of settling biogenic particles supplying dFe at depth. The organic ligand concentrations [L_T] in the surface waters ranged between 0.4 and 0.5 nM, with conditional stability constants (log K′_FeL) between 22.6 and 22.7. Furthermore, [L_T] was in excess of [dFe] throughout the water column, and dFe was therefore largely complexed by organic ligands (>99%). The ratio of [L_T]/[dFe] was used to analyse trends in Fe speciation. Enhanced and variable [L_T]/[dFe] ratios ranging between 1.6 and 5.8 were observed in surface waters; the ratio decreased with depth to a more constant [L_T]/[dFe] ratio in deep waters. In the Iceland Basin and Rockall Trough, enhanced [L_T]/[dFe] ratios in surface waters resulted from decreases in [dFe], likely reflecting the conditions of Fe limitation of the phytoplankton community in the surface waters of the Iceland Basin and the high productivity in the Rockall Trough.Below the surface mixed layer, the observed increase in [dFe] resulted in a decrease of the [L_T]/[dFe] ratios (1.2–2.6) with depth. This indicated that the Fe binding ligand sites became occupied and even almost saturated at enhanced [dFe] in the deeper waters. Furthermore, our results showed a quasi-steady state in deep waters between dissolved organic Fe ligands and dFe, reflecting a balance between Fe removal by scavenging and Fe supply by remineralisation of biogenic particles with stabilisation through ligands.     

Production and speciation of hydrogen sulfide in surface waters of the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean

During the August 1993 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's Contaminant Baseline Survey cruise to the high latitude North Atlantic, determinations of total dissolved sulfide (TDS=free sulfide, H₂S_(g)+HS⁻+S²⁻, plus dissolved metal–sulfide complexes), free sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide (OCS) were made along a horizontal transect and at six vertical profile stations. Unlike data from lower latitudes, the distributions of OCS and TDS were remarkably uniform, with surface water OCS averaging 108 pmol/l and TDS averaging 58 pmol/l; free sulfide was below the detection limits of 5 pmol/l at all stations. The vertical profiles of both OCS and TDS show surface maxima and rapid decreases into the major thermocline. For OCS this is indicative of production via photolysis of dissolved organic sulfur compounds, while TDS may be produced from the hydrolysis of OCS. The concentrations of OCS are similar to those found in coastal waters, and suggests that these sub-polar regions may be large OCS sources to the troposphere during summer. However, it is unclear whether higher concentrations of OCS precursors, a long photo period during summer, or slow rates of removal by hydrolysis due to low temperatures are responsible for the elevated OCS levels. TDS concentrations are primarily controlled by the rate of OCS hydrolysis, production by phytoplankton, and oxidative loss by oxygen and iodate. Both of the losses are affected by trace metal complexation, and to examine this, freshly collected seawater was amended by hydrogen sulfide gas and trace metal additions, and the concentration of free sulfide monitored as a function of metal concentration. This allowed the determinations of conditional stability constants for metal sulfides, with the log K_cond of Cd(HS)⁺ being 8.0±0.5, 7.0±0.6 for Ni(HS)⁺, and 7.4±0.7 for Zn(HS)⁺; attempts at measuring the K_cond of Cu(HS)⁺ were thwarted by the apparent reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) by sulfide. Using these constants in an equilibrium speciation model indicates that on average about 75% of the measured TDS was free, with the remaining fraction complexed with Ni, Cd, and Zn (in order of decreasing percentages). While closer to the field observations than would be found with stability constants reported by other workers, these values are still at variance with the actual speciation (i.e., <30% free). This suggests that the stability constants for Cd, Ni, and Zn are somewhat higher than found, thus reducing the concentration of free sulfide. Nevertheless, these speciation data are important for balancing the TDS budget since the loss by iodate oxidation of free sulfide exceeds all production estimates.     

盛夏北极边缘海冰与来年冬季NAO之联系

许多研究认为,只有北大西洋涛动(NAO)是一种具有物理意义的模态,而北极涛动(AO)则是EOF分解得到的一种统计假象模态。为了从一个新的角度进一步探讨二者的差别,我们运用附条件的最大协方差分析(CMCA)统计了前期北极边缘海冰密集度(MSCI)与来年冬季NAO之间的跨季节遥相关关系,其中的ENSO信号和线性趋势已经在分析之前被去除。统计显著性结果表明:冬季负位相的NAO信号可以追溯到6个月前自盛夏开始至早冬季节北极MSCI异常的逐步演变。然而根据先前的研究,北极海冰异常仅可以超前冬季AO 大概4个月表现出显著信号。这表明盛夏北极MSCI的持续异常对来年冬季NAO的影响比对AO更强,同时也从另一个角度证实了AO与NAO确实存在差异。进一步分析还表明,前期MSCI异常的逐步演变主要与海表面热通量及气温异常有关。此外,我们还重新审视了负位相的NAO对北半球冬季气候异常的影响以及可能的物理机制。     

North Atlantic Oscillation: Description,Mechanisms, and Influence on the Eurasian Climate

The present work is devoted to the characteristic of the North-Atlantic Oscillation and the analysis of the state-of-the-art of this problem. In the survey section of the work, we deal with the following issues: the definition of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations, their interaction with oceanic processes, and their influence on the variations of climate in Eurasia. In addition, by using the COADS (Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set) data and the data on the discharge of European and Asian rivers, we establish some new original results. It is confirmed that the anomalies of the sea-surface temperature are consequences of the integral response of the ocean to the preceding atmospheric actions and that the spectra of these anomalies are characterized by the presence of significant peaks within the band of periods of 10–20 yr. These periods correspond to inherent oceanic variability. The atmospheric response manifests itself in the form of abnormal conditions over the catchment areas of European and Asian rivers, which leads to oscillations of their discharges. As a result of the intensification of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the displacement of the centers of action of the atmosphere in the 60–90s of the previous century, the influence of this oscillation on the climatic conditions in the European-Asian region became more intense.     

Tropospheric temperature interannual variations associated with decadal changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation

This paper studies the causes and mechanisms of the formation of extreme anomalies in the tropospheric temperature associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Our approach is based on understanding that, in the annual cycle, continental-scale tropospheric temperature anomalies (planetary waves with longitudinal wave numbers of 1–3) can both intensify under the direct action of heat inflow as an energy source for these anomalies (radiation cooling/heating) and weaken as a result of the destructive action of heat inflow under temperature advections with the opposite (to the heat inflow) sign [4, 5]. According to the monthly mean data of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis over the 40-year period, seasonal air temperature anomalies have been studied at the level 850 hPa (T ₈₅₀) in different regions of Eurasia. It has been confirmed that the negative NAO phase in winter is favorable for preserving negative T ₈₅₀ anomalies in the east of the continent at this time of year, whereas the positive NAO phase is favorable for negative T ₈₅₀ anomalies in the west. However, it has been revealed that this dependence was critically violated during the winter seasons approximately two years before an extreme event. This was explained by the fact that, in those years, the NAO influence on winter T ₈₅₀ anomalies was limited. This paper formally considers a certain mechanism of anomalous heat inflow as an energy source for these anomalies with functions of the formation (intensification) of negative T ₈₅₀ anomalies in winter and positive T ₈₅₀ anomalies in summer, as well as with a function of the limitation of the influence of the predominant dynamic mode on some regions of the continent. It is shown that, in the 1960s, T ₈₅₀ anomalies with negative NAO indices in the east of the continent were governed by a hypothetic mechanism of heat inflow as an energy source for anomalies; in 1980s, at prolonged positive NAO indices, T ₈₅₀ anomalies in the west of the continent could also be governed by this mechanism. This paper, within the accepted degree of detail, demonstrates the process of limitation of the NAO influence in some years (1966, 1967, 1987, and 1988), which leads to an unbalance of the anomalies and a possible extreme phenomenon. It is demonstrated that, in some seasons, the anomalies were not governed by the hypothetic mechanism of the heat inflow under the action of large NAO changes and a complete upset of the annual cycle of anomalies. Determining the first indicators of the unbalance, which can lead to extreme anomalies, is shown to be difficult if it is based only on an analysis of winter seasons (as is the case with most of the works) without invoking the annual trends of the tropospheric temperature and the NAO index.     

Variability of the North Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation in Different Phases of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation from Ocean Objective Analyses and Reanalyses

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - Zonally averaged characteristics of the North Atlantic (NA) thermohaline circulation are investigated in different phases of the Atlantic Multidecadal...     

Evidence of multidecadal climate variability and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation from a Gulf of Mexico sea-surface temperature-proxy record

A comparison of a Mg/Ca-based sea-surface temperature (SST)-anomaly record from the northern Gulf of Mexico, a calculated index of variability in observed North Atlantic SST known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and a tree-ring reconstruction of the AMO contain similar patterns of variation over the last 110 years. Thus, the multidecadal variability observed in the instrumental record is present in the tree-ring and Mg/Ca proxy data. Frequency analysis of the Gulf of Mexico SST record and the tree-ring AMO reconstruction from 1550 to 1990 found similar multidecadal-scale periodicities (~30–60 years). This multidecadal periodicity is about half the observed (60–80 years) variability identified in the AMO for the 20th century. The historical records of hurricane landfalls reveal increased landfalls in the Gulf Coast region during time intervals when the AMO index is positive (warmer SST), and decreased landfalls when the AMO index is negative (cooler SST). Thus, we conclude that alternating intervals of high and low hurricane landfall occurrences may continue on multidecadal timescales along the northern Gulf Coast. However, given the short length of the instrumental record, the actual frequency and stability of the AMO are uncertain, and additional AMO proxy records are needed to establish the character of multidecadal-scale SST variability in the North Atlantic.     

冬季北大西洋涛动和乌拉尔山阻塞环流对欧亚大陆变冷的协同影响

虽然全球平均表面气温不断升高,但在冬季欧亚大陆经常出现年际-年代际尺度上的变冷趋势。利用美国国家环境预报中心(National Centers for Environmental Prediction, NCEP)再分析资料,指出冬季影响欧亚大陆变冷的大气环流主要是北大西洋涛动(North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO)和乌拉尔山阻塞(Ural blocking, UB)的环流组合。其中,NAO环流可以在年际尺度上作为背景环流影响UB过程对欧亚低温天气的作用。统计分析发现,在NAO正(负)位相(NAO⁺/NAO^-)环流背景下UB的发生频率可以解释冬季平均UB发生频率的52%(13%),表明NAO⁺环流有利于下游阻塞形势出现。尽管如此,研究发现在NAO^-环流背景下的UB事件平均给欧亚地区带来的降温幅度更强,约是NAO⁺环流背景下的2倍,而且亚洲降温区的位置偏北约5°、偏东约13.5°。中等强度的NAO⁺环流背景下UB事件对欧亚降温的贡献...