一种基于空间-拓扑结构相似性的复杂轨迹聚类算法

复杂的面状空间实体如海洋涡旋、环流和降雨过程在运动过程中会产生更复杂的轨迹,即具有分支结构的复杂轨迹。为了挖掘这类复杂轨迹的运动模式特征,本文从复杂轨迹的拓扑结构和空间特征出发,创新性地提出复杂轨迹的空间-拓扑结构相似性度量算法（Spatial-Topological Similarity Measurement, STSM）,该算法是基于图同构算法VF2改进的。首先STSM算法将复杂轨迹用带有节点和边的图结构表达,并将空间信息融入图结构的节点属性中,通过匹配复杂轨迹之间所有最大公共子结构,找到匹配结构中节点之间一一对应的关系,利用加权的欧式距离计算复杂轨迹匹配结构中点对之间的空间距离。然后,基于STSM相似性算法进行层次聚类分析,旨在发现复杂轨迹之间相似的拓扑结构在空间上的聚集模式。最后,利用1993-2016年长时间序列的中国南海冷涡复杂轨迹验证方法的有效性,并对比分析复杂轨迹拓扑结构相似性算法CSM。结果表明：单纯用拓扑结构相似性算法CSM进行聚类分析,不能充分挖掘空间的聚集模式,因为不同空间位置也存在拓扑结构相似的轨迹。而本文提出的STSM算法将南海冷涡复杂轨迹分为5类,第一类分布在南海北部、第二类分布在南海中部、其他三类交错在南海南部。这种聚集模式在一定程度上反映了冷涡的生成和演化过程在南海北部、中部、南部的差异性,同时也表明了冷涡移动在南海南部存在更为复杂的异质性。因此,本文提出的方法可以有效地从复杂轨迹数据中发现其演化过程的潜在聚集模式,为认识这类复杂动态现象的时空演化特征提供了一种新的方法。     

Patterns of Pacific decadal variability recorded by Indian Ocean corals

We investigate Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) signals recorded by two bimonthly resolved coral δ¹⁸O series from La Réunion and Ifaty (West Madagascar), Indian Ocean from 1882 to 1993. To isolate the main PDO frequencies, we apply a band pass filter to the time series passing only periodicities from 16 to 28 years. We investigate the covariance patterns of the coral time series with sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In addition, the empirical orthogonal functions of the filtered SST and SLP fields (single and coupled) are related to the filtered coral times series. The covariance maps show the typical PDO pattern for SST and SLP, confirming the coupling between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Both corals show the strongest signal in boreal summer. The La Réunion (Ifaty) coral better records SST (SLP) than SLP (SST) pattern variability. We suggest that the filtered La Réunion coral δ¹⁸O represents δ¹⁸O of seawater that varies with the South Equatorial Current, which, in turn, is linked with the SST PDO. The filtered Ifaty coral δ¹⁸O represents SST and is remotely linked with the SLP PDO variability. A combined coral record of the Ifaty and La Réunion boreal summer δ¹⁸O series explains about 64% of the variance of the coupled SST/SLP PDO time series. AGU OS06 special issue “Ocean’s role in climate change—a paleo perspective”.     

Topographic eddies in temporally varying oceanic flows

Abstract

In this paper we examine the behaviour of oceanic unsteady flow impinging on isolated topography by means of numerical simulation. The ocean model is quasigeostrophic and forced by an oscillatory mean flow. The fluid domain is of the channel type and open-boundary numerical conditions are used to represent downstream and upstream flow.

In certain cases, vortex shedding, either cyclonic or anticyclonic, is observed in the lee of obstacles. Such shedding can be explained as the consequence of both an enhanced process of vorticity dissipation over the topography which locally affects the balance of potential vorticity on the advective timescale, and a periodic dominance of advective effects which sweep the fluid particles trapped on the seamount. For refined resolution and smallest viscosity the model will predict flows in which the shed eddies are coherent structures with closed streamlines.

The model suggests a mechanism by which topographically generated eddies may be swept away from a seamount in the ocean.     

Variability in the Canary Islands area of filament-eddy exchanges

The physical background to a suite of biological studies carried out in the Canary Islands upwelling region is presented. The area is unique in that the coastal transition zone is spanned by an archipelago of islands that shed mesoscale eddies of diameter 50–100 km into the alongshore flow. A recurrent filament and eddy system was sampled intensively to study the changing properties of waters as they are advected towards the open ocean in the filament and to investigate the exchanges between filament and eddies. The system was more complex than previously revealed. In early August, a single filament extended offshore from near Cape Juby. Two weeks later, a second filament had developed slightly farther north and extended offshore to merge with the first at 100 km offshore. The merged filament was entrained around a recurrent, topographically trapped cyclonic eddy and interacted with transient cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies shed from the island of Gran Canaria. Between the two filaments and the coast, a pair of counter-rotating eddies re-circulated water parcels for several weeks. Surface layer drifters cycled around this near-shore re-circulation several times before following convoluted paths that demonstrate significant exchange between continental shelf and open ocean waters.     

Physical Characteristics of Haida Eddies

Haida Eddies are anti-cyclonic features that form in winter along the eastern continental margin of the Gulf of Alaska, west of the Canadian Queen Charlotte Islands. These eddies have been observed in many oceanographic programs, but their full life cycle has only been known for the past few years. Core waters of eddies are warmer below 100 m depth, and normally fresher at all depths than surrounding waters. Eddies formed in the ENSO winters of 1982/83 and 1997/98 were the highest observed, and were warmer than observed in other years. A study of historical variability of dynamic heights in regions where five eddies were observed shows that Haida Eddies are rare events in each region; and their impact cannot be simulated in any one year without directly modelling each individual eddy. The very large Haida Eddy formed in 1998 is the best sampled to date. Satellite-based measurements six months after its formation show the eddy to rise between 0.33 and 0.37 m above surrounding waters, with a Gaussian radius between 60 and 75 km. Dynamic height anomalies at this time, computed from ship-based observations along two lines through the eddy to 1500 metres depth, reveal a height of 0.32 and 0.35 m respectively, relative to surrounding waters, and Gaussian radius of 60 km. It was almost totally baroclinic, with one-half the baroclinic structure in the upper 375 m or so; however, its anti-cyclonic rotation depressed isotherms and isohalines at depths below 1000 m. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mesoscale eddies dominate surface phytoplankton in northern Gulf of Alaska

The HNLC waters of the Gulf of Alaska normally receive too little iron for primary productivity to draw down silicate and nitrate in surface waters, even in spring and summer. Our observations of chlorophyll sensed by SeaWiFS north of 54°N in pelagic waters (>500 m depth) of the gulf found that, on average, more than half of all surface chlorophyll was inside the 4 cm contours of anticyclonic mesoscale eddies (the ratio approaches 80% in spring months), yet these contours enclosed only 10% of the total surface area of pelagic waters in the gulf. Therefore, eddies dominate the chlorophyll and phytoplankton distribution in surface pelagic waters. We outline several eddy processes that enhance primary productivity. Eddies near the continental margin entrain nutrient - (and Fe) - rich and chlorophyll-rich coastal waters into their outer rings, advecting these waters into the basin interior to directly increase phytoplankton populations there. In addition, eddies carry excess nutrients and iron in their core waters into pelagic regions as they propagate away from the continental margin. As these anticyclonic eddies decay, their depressed isopycnals relax upward, injecting nutrients up toward the surface layer. We propose that this transport brings iron and macro-nutrients toward the surface mixed layer, where they are available for wind-forced mixing to bring them to surface. These mesoscale eddies decay slowly, but steadily, perhaps providing a relatively regular upward supply of macro-nutrients and iron toward euphotic layers. They might behave as isolated oases of enhanced marine productivity in an otherwise iron-poor basin. We note that much of this productivity might be near or just below the base of the surface mixed layer, and therefore poorly sampled by colour-sensing satellites. It is possible, then, that eddies enrich phytoplankton populations to a greater extent than noted from satellite surface observations only.     

Understanding how physical-biological coupling influences harmful algal blooms,low oxygen and fish kills in the Sea of Oman and the Western Arabian Sea

In the last decade, green Noctiluca scintillans with its symbiont and other dinoflagellates such as Cochlodinium polykrikoides, Prorocentrum micans and Scrippsiella trochoidea have become the dominant HABs, partially replacing the previously dominant diatoms and red Noctiluca scintillans, especially during the northeast monsoon. Fish kills in the Sea of Oman are linked to a slow seasonal decline in oxygen concentration from January to November, probably due to the decomposition of a series of algal blooms and the deep, low oxygen waters periodically impinging the Omani shelf. In the western Arabian Sea, cyclonic eddies upwell low oxygen, nutrient-rich water and the subsequent algal bloom decays and lowers the oxygen further and leads to fish kills. Warming of the surface waters by 1.2 °C over the last 5 decades has increased stratification and resulted in a shoaling of the oxycline. This has increased the probability and frequency of upwelling low oxygen water and subsequent fish kills.     

A three-dimensional model study of warm core ring interaction with continental shelf and slope

The interaction of warm core rings with a western wall and shelf/slope is examined with a three-dimensional primitive-equation model. The model ring is initialized with an axisymmetric Gaussian-type anticyclonic eddy placing far from the coastal boundary to allow the ring to freely propagate towards the wall and shelf/slope. The ring initially propagates steadily to the southwest at about 3 km/day under the combined planetary β and nonlinear effects. When colliding with a wall, the ring adjusts into a ‘D’ shape and moves poleward under primarily the image effect. When colliding with a shelf and slope, the ring however becomes stalled and bounces on and off the shelf/slope with little net movement. Small cyclones marked by strong upwelling are generated near the shelfbreak. Cyclones and anticyclones also are spawned at the periphery of the ring. Satellite SST images and concurrent ADCP transects are used to illustrate the strong interaction of a Gulf Stream warm ring (99B) with the Middle Atlantic Bight.     

A multi-model study of the restratification phase in an idealized convection basin

The representation of baroclinic instability in numerical models depends strongly upon the model physics and significant differences may be found depending on the vertical discretization of the governing dynamical equations. This dependency is explored in the context of the restratification of an idealized convective basin with no external forcing. A comparison is made between an isopycnic model including a mixed layer (the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model, MICOM), its adiabatic version (MICOM-ADIAB) in which the mixed layer physics are removed and the convective layer is described by a deep adiabatic layer outcropping at the surface instead of a thick dense mixed layer, and a z-coordinate model (OPA model).In the absence of a buoyancy source at the surface, the mixed layer geometry in MICOM prevents almost any retreat of this layer. As a result, lateral heat exchanges in the upper layers are limited while mass transfers across the outer boundary of the deep convective mixed layer result in an unrealistic outward spreading of this layer. Such a widespread deep mixed layer maintains a low level of baroclinic instability, and therefore limits lateral heat exchanges in the upper layers over most of the model domain. The behavior of the adiabatic isopycnic model and z-coordinate model is by far more satisfactory although contrasted features can be observed between the two simulations. In MICOM-ADIAB, the more baroclinic dynamics introduce a stronger contrast between the surface and the dense waters in the eddy kinetic energy and heat flux distributions. Better preservation of the density contrasts around the dense water patch maintains more persistent baroclinic instability, essentially associated with the process of dense water spreading. The OPA simulation shows a faster growth of the eddy kinetic energy in the early stages of the restratification which is attributed to more efficient baroclinic instability and leads to the most rapid buoyancy restoring in the convective area among the three simulations. Dense water spreading and warm surface capping occur on fairly similar time scales in MICOM-ADIAB although the former is more persistent that the latter. In this model, heat is mainly transported by anticyclonic eddies in the dense layer while both cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies are involved in the upper layers. In OPA, heat is mainly brought into the convective zone through the export of cold water trapped in cyclonic eddies with a strong barotropic structure. Probably the most interesting difference between the z-coordinate and the adiabatic isopycnic model is found in the temperature distribution ultimately produced by the restratification process. OPA generates a spurious volume of intermediate water which is not seen in MICOM-ADIAB where the volume of the dense water is preserved.     

The distributions of, and relationship between, He and nitrate in eddies

We present and discuss the distribution of ³He and its relationship to nutrients in two eddies (cyclone C1 and anticyclone A4) with a view towards examining eddy-related mechanisms whereby nutrients are transported from the upper 200–300 m into the euphotic zone of the Sargasso Sea. The different behavior of these tracers in the euphotic zone results in changes in their distributions and relationships that may provide important clues as to the nature of physical and biological processes involved.The cyclonic eddy (C1) is characterized by substantial ³He excesses within the euphotic zone. The distribution of this excess ³He is strongly suggestive of both past and recent ongoing deep-water injection into the euphotic zone. Crude mass balance calculations suggest that an average of approximately 1.4±0.7 mol m⁻² of nitrate has been introduced into the euphotic zone of eddy C1, consistent with the integrated apparent oxygen utilization anomaly in the aphotic zone below. The ³He–NO₃ relationship within the eddy deviates substantially from the linear thermocline trend, suggestive of incomplete drawdown of nutrients and/or substantial mixing between euphotic and aphotic zone waters.Anticyclone (A4) displays a simpler ³He–NO₃ relationship, but is relatively impoverished in euphotic zone excess ³He. We suggest that because of the relatively strong upwelling and lateral divergence of water the residence time of upwelled ³He is relatively short within the euphotic zone of this eddy. An estimate of the recently upwelled nutrient inventory, based on the excess ³He observed in A4's lower euphotic zone, is stoichiometrically consistent with the oxygen maximum observed in the euphotic zone.