Decadal interactions between the western tropical Pacific and the North Atlantic Oscillation

The relationship between interdecadal variations of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) in the last 120 years and circulation anomalies related to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is investigated in this study. Using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), we confirm observational evidence that variations in the SST gradient in the western tropical Pacific are related to the NAO anomalies on decadal timescale, and may be contributing to the shift towards the positive NAO phase observed in the late 20th century. The role played by the Indian Ocean-NAO teleconnection, advocated in recent studies focused on the last 50 years, is also assessed in the context of the 120-year long record. It is suggested that a positive feedback between the Pacific SST and the hemispheric circulation pattern embedding the decadal NAO signal may act to enhance the internal variability of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system, and justify the stronger teleconnection found in observational data than in SST-forced AGCM experiments.

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Interpretation of Crown Radiation Temperatures of a Dense Douglas fir Forest with Similarity Theory

Infrared crown radiation temperatures as observed over a dense Douglas fir forest are analyzed in the context of similarity theory and the concept of transport resistances. As such we obtain a rather high value of the roughness length for heat, which is about equal to the roughness length for momentum. This value can be explained by the more efficient transport of heat relative to momentum in the roughness sublayer of the forest. Correcting for this effect we arrive at the classic value for homogeneous terrain of about 0.1 times the roughness length for momentum. For unstable cases the presence of enhanced mixing of heat in the roughness sublayer leads to a modified integral stability function for the dimensionless potential temperature difference between the surface and the top of the roughness sublayer. The observations give some evidence for this different stability behaviour. The analysis suggests that during daytime the radiative surface temperature and the aerodynamic surface temperature are not significantly different when used to estimate fluxes. Daytime trunk space air temperature is satisfactory parameterized with the concept of gusts and with surface renewal analysis. As such it is related to the sensible heat flux and the storage heat flux. Night time radiation temperatures at times strongly deviate from the expected behaviour based on similarity theory and the roughness length for heat, suggesting that the concept of a single surface temperature is too simple for such cases.     

Thermal pulse induced by emplacement of Ramba leucogranites in southern Tibet

The thermal histories of Himalayan leucogranites provide critical information for unravelling the post-collisional geodynamics of the Himalayas. The Ramba Dome is located at the intersection of the Tethyan Himalayan leucogranite belt with the Yadong–Gulu Rift and hosts several generations of granitic intrusions. Of these intrusions, the 8-Ma two-mica granites and garnet leucogranite dykes are the youngest of Himalayan leucogranites. In this study, we focus on the carbonaceous staurolite schist located ~1.3 km from the intrusion to constrain the thermal history of the aureole that marked the cessation of leucogranite magmatism. The schist contains euhedral garnet and staurolite porphyroblasts in a foliated matrix of muscovite + biotite + chlorite + plagioclase + quartz + graphite. The staurolite shows minor compositional variations from the inclusion-free core to the inclusion-rich rim. By contrast, the garnet features a distinctive bell-shaped Mn profile and increasing Mg# from the garnet core to rims. In a graphite-bearing equilibrium phase diagram for a modified bulk composition with garnet cores removed, the garnet rim composition suggests a peak temperature of ~550°C, consistent with an independent thermometer based on the Raman spectra of carbonaceous materials (RSCM; 548 ± 9°C). The P–T condition lies within the narrow low-variance field bracketed by the staurolite-in and chlorite-out boundaries, indicating minimal overstepping of staurolite nucleation and growth. On the other hand, the garnet core composition indicates 520°C at 2.5 kbar, about 40°C higher than the predicted garnet-in boundary (~480°C). This apparent temperature overstep corresponds to a small chemical affinity (<5 kJ/mol 12 O) for garnet nucleation, comparable to previous estimates. The sharp boundaries of the high-Ca sector zoning in the core indicate limited diffusion modification (~1.5 Ma if at the peak temperature). The short thermal pulse involves advective heat transfer by leucogranite emplacement, followed by rapid cooling toward the end of Himalayan magmatism and rapid exhumation likely facilitated by the Yadong–Gulu Rift.