Meridional propagation of large-scale monsoon convective zones

Observational studies indicate that the convective activity of the monsoon systems undergo intraseasonal variations with multi-week time scales. The zone of maximum monsoon convection exhibits substantial transient behavior with successive propagating from the North Indian Ocean to the heated continent. Over South Asia the zone achieves its maximum intensity. These propagations may extend over 3000 km in latitude and perhaps twice the distance in longitude and remain as coherent entities for periods greater than 2-3 weeks. Attempts to explain this phenomena using simple ocean-atmosphere models of the monsoon system had concluded that the interactive ground hydrology so modifies the total heating of the atmosphere that a steady state solution is not possible, thus promoting lateral propagation. That is, the ground hydrology forces the total heating of the atmosphere and the vertical velocity to be slightly out of phase, causing a migration of the convection towards the region of maximum heating. Whereas the lateral scale of the variations produced by the Webster (1983) model were essentially correct, they occurred at twice the frequency of the observed events and were formed near the coastal margin, rather than over the ocean. Webster's (1983) model used to pose the theories was deficient in a number of aspects. Particularly, both the ground moisture content and the thermal inertia of the model were severely underestimated. At the same time, the sea surface temperatures produced by the model between the equator and the model's land-sea boundary were far too cool. Both the atmosphere and the ocean model were modified to include a better hydrological cycle and ocean structure. The convective events produced by the modified model possessed the observed frequency and were generated well south of the coastline. The improved simulation of monsoon variability allowed the hydrological cycle feedback to be generalized. It was found that monsoon variability was constrained to lie within the bounds of a positive gradient of a convective intensity potential (I). The function depends primarily on the surface temperature, the availability of moisture and the stability of the lower atmosphere which varies very slowly on the time scale of months. The oscillations of the monsoon perturb the mean convective intensity potential causing local enhancements of the gradient. These perturbations are caused by the hydrological feedbacks, discussed above, or by the modification of the air-sea fluxes caused by variations of the low level wind during convective events. The final result is the slow northward propagation of convection within an even slower convective regime. The ECMWF analyses show very similar behavior of the convective intensity potential. Although it is considered premature to use the model to conduct simulations of the African monsoon system, the ECMWF analysis indicates similar behavior in the convective intensity potential suggesting, at least, that the same processes control the low frequency structure of the African monsoon. The implications of the hypotheses on numerical weather prediction of monsoon phenomenon are discussed.

Variation of drag coefficient with wind wave development

Turbulent air flows over developing wind waves in the air-sea boundary layer are numerically simulated without considering wave breaking. Influences of wind waves on air flows are considered using a model of significant wave and surface roughness, with a formula proposed for calculating the surface roughness, k - epsilon model is adopted to simulate turbulent flows. The results of the drag coefficient and turbulence characteristics agree well with the observations.

The motion of a small bubble in waves

The motion of a single spherical small bubble due to buoyancy in the ideal fluid with waves is investigated theoretically and experimentally in this article. Assuming that the bubble has no effect on the wave field, equations of a bubble motion are obtained and solved. It is found that the nonlinear effect increases with the increase of the bubble radius and the rising time. The rising time and the motion orbit are given by calculations and experiments. When the radius of a bubble is smaller than 0.5mm and the distance from the free surface is greater than the wave height, the results of the present theory are in close agreement with measurements.

C02 in the North Pacific Ocean.

Executive Summary [pdf, 0.01 MB] Introduction [pdf, 0.01 MB] Synthesis of the WOCE/JGOFS global CO2 survey data in the North Pacific [pdf, 0.3 MB] Air-sea CO2 fluxes [pdf, 0.1 MB] DIC, TAlk and anthropogenic CO2 distributions in the North Pacific [pdf, 3 MB] Biogeochemical and global implications [pdf, 0.1 MB] Recommendations for the future of carbon studies within PICES [pdf, 0.1 MB] References [pdf, 0.1 MB] Appendix A. Summary of PICES Working Group 13 activities (1998-2001) [pdf, 0.1 MB] Appendix B. Results of Working Group 13 method inter-comparison studies [pdf, 0.6 MB] Appendix C. Results of Working Group 13 data integration workshops [pdf, 0.5 MB] (57 page document)

In situ measurement of dissolved inorganic carbon speciation in natural waters, pH, pC02, TA, & TC02, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 16-18, 2005: workshop proceedings

The Alliance for Coastal Technology (ACT) convened a workshop on the in situ measurement of dissolved inorganic carbon species in natural waters in Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 16, 17, and 18, 2005. The workshop was designed to summarize existing technologies for measuring the abundance and speciation of dissolved inorganic carbon and to make strategic recommendations for future development and application of these technologies to coastal research and management. The workshop was not focused on any specific technology, however, most of the attention of the workshop was on in situ pC02 sensors given their recent development and use on moorings for the measurement of global carbon fluxes. In addition, the problems and limitations arising from the long-term deployment of systems designed for the measurement of pH, total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and total alkalinity (TA) were discussed. Participants included researchers involved in carbon biogeochemistry, industry representatives, and coastal resource managers. The primary questions asked during the workshop were: I. What are the major impediments to transform presently used shipboard pC02 measurement systems for use on cost-eficient moorings? 2. What are the major technical hurdles for the in situ measurement of TA and DIC? 3. What specific information do we need to coordinate efforts for proof of concept' testing of existing and new technologies, inter-calibration of those technologies, better software development, and more precise knowledge quantzjjing the geochemistry of dissolved inoeanic carbon species in order to develop an observing system for dissolved inorganic carbon? Based on the discussion resulting from these three questions, the following statements were made: Statement No. 1 Cost-effective, self-contained technologies for making long-term, accurate measurements of the partial pressure of C02 gas in water already exist and at present are ready for deployment on moorings in coastal observing systems. Statement No. 2 Cost-effective, self-contained systems for the measurement of pH, TA, and DIC are still needed to both fully define the carbonate chemistry of coastal waters and the fluxes of carbon between major biogeochemical compartments (e.g., air-sea, shelf-slope, water column-sediment, etc.). (pdf contains 23 pages)

Two modes of dipole events in tropical Indian Ocean

By analyzing the distributions of subsurface temperature and the surface wind stress anomalies in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans during the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events, two major modes of the IOD and their formation mechanisms are revealed. (1) The subsurface temperature anomaly (STA) in the tropical Indian Ocean during the IOD events can be described as a "<" -shaped and west-east-oriented dipole pattern; in the east side of the "<" pattern, a notable tongue-like STA extends westward along the equator in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean; while in the west side of the "<" pattern, the STA has opposite sign with two centers (the southern one is stronger than the northern one in intensity) being of rough symmetry about the equator in the tropical mid-western Indian Ocean. (2) The IOD events are composed of two modes, which have similar spatial pattern but different temporal variabilities due to the large scale air-sea interactions within two independent systems. The first mode of the IOD event originates from the air-sea interaction on a scale of the tropical Pacific-Indian Ocean and coexists with ENSO. The second mode originates from the air-sea interaction on a scale of the tropical Indian Ocean and is closely associated with changes in the position and intensity of the Mascarene high pressure. The strong IOD event occurs when the two modes are in phase, and the IOD event weakens or disappears when the two modes are out of phase. Besides, the IOD events are normally strong when either of the two modes is strong. (3) The IOD event is caused by the abnormal wind stress forcing over the tropical Indian Ocean, which results in vertical transports, leading to the upwelling and pileup of seawater. This is the main dynamic processes resulting in the STA. When the anomalous easterly exists over the equatorial Indian Ocean, the cold waters upwell in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean while the warm waters pileup in the tropical western Indian Ocean, hence the thermocline in the tropical Indian Ocean is shallowed in the east and deepened in the west. The off-equator component due to the Coriolis force in the equatorial area causes the upwelling of cold waters and the shallowing of the equatorial India Ocean thermocline. On the other hand, the anomalous anticyclonic circulations and their curl fields located on both sides of the equator, cause the pileup of warm waters in the central area of their curl fields and the deepening of the equatorial Indian Ocean thermocline off the equator. The above three factors lead to the occurrence of positive phase IOD events. When anomalous westerly dominates over the tropical Indian Ocean, the dynamic processes are reversed, and the negative-phase IOD event occurs.

Neural network retrieval of ocean surface parameters from SSM/I data

A new algorithm based on the multiparameter neural network is proposed to retrieve wind speed (WS), sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface air temperature, and relative humidity ( RH) simultaneously over the global oceans from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) observations. The retrieved geophysical parameters are used to estimate the surface latent heat flux and sensible heat flux using a bulk method over the global oceans. The neural network is trained and validated with the matchups of SSM/I overpasses and National Data Buoy Center buoys under both clear and cloudy weather conditions. In addition, the data acquired by the 85.5-GHz channels of SSM/I are used as the input variables of the neural network to improve its performance. The root-mean-square (rms) errors between the estimated WS, SST, sea surface air temperature, and RH from SSM/I observations and the buoy measurements are 1.48 m s(-1), 1.54 degrees C, 1.47 degrees C, and 7.85, respectively. The rms errors between the estimated latent and sensible heat fluxes from SSM/I observations and the Xisha Island ( in the South China Sea) measurements are 3.21 and 30.54 W m(-2), whereas those between the SSM/ I estimates and the buoy data are 4.9 and 37.85 W m(-2), respectively. Both of these errors ( those for WS, SST, and sea surface air temperature, in particular) are smaller than those by previous retrieval algorithms of SSM/ I observations over the global oceans. Unlike previous methods, the present algorithm is capable of producing near-real-time estimates of surface latent and sensible heat fluxes for the global oceans from SSM/I data.

Subtropical dipole mode in the Southern Hemisphere: A global view

A global wavenumber-3 dipole SST mode is showed to exist in the Southern Hemisphere subtropical climate variability in austral summer. A positive (negative) phase of the mode is characterized by cool (warm) SST anomalies in the east and warm (cool) SST anomalies in the southwest of the south Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, respectively. This coherent dipole structure is largely a response of ocean mixed layer to the atmospheric forcing characterized by migration and modulation of the subtropical high-pressures, in which the latent heat flux play a leading role through wind-induced evaporation, although ocean dynamics may also be crucial in forming SST anomalies attached to the continents. Exploratory analyses suggest that this mode is strongly damped by the negative heat flux feedback, with a persistence time about three months and no spectral peak at interannual to decadal time scales. As the subtropical dipole mode is linearly independent of ENSO and SAM, whether it represents an additional source of climate predictability should be further studied. Citation: Wang, F. (2010), Subtropical dipole mode in the Southern Hemisphere: A global view, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L10702, doi: 10.1029/2010GL042750.

Wave breaking on turbulent energy budget in the ocean surface mixed layer

As an important physical process at the air-sea interface, wave movement and breaking have a significant effect on the ocean surface mixed layer (OSML). When breaking waves occur at the ocean surface, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is input downwards, and a sublayer is formed near the surface and turbulence vertical mixing is intensively enhanced. A one-dimensional ocean model including the Mellor-Yamada level 2.5 turbulence closure equations was employed in our research on variations in turbulent energy budget within OSML. The influence of wave breaking could be introduced into the model by modifying an existing surface boundary condition of the TKE equation and specifying its input. The vertical diffusion and dissipation of TKE were effectively enhanced in the sublayer when wave breaking was considered. Turbulent energy dissipated in the sublayer was about 92.0% of the total depth-integrated dissipated TKE, which is twice higher than that of non-wave breaking. The shear production of TKE decreased by 3.5% because the mean flow fields tended to be uniform due to wave-enhanced turbulent mixing. As a result, a new local equilibrium between diffusion and dissipation of TKE was reached in the wave-enhanced layer. Below the sublayer, the local equilibrium between shear production and dissipation of TKE agreed with the conclusion drawn from the classical law-of-the-wall (Craig and Banner, 1994).

IMPACTS OF THE TROPICAL PACIFIC COUPLED PROCESS ON THE INTERANNUAL VARIABILITY IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

The basic features of climatology and interannual variations of tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans were analyzed using a coupled general circulation model (CGCM), which was constituted with an intermediate 2.5-layer ocean model and atmosphere model ECHAM4. The CGCM well captures the spatial and temporal structure of the Pacific El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability features in the tropical Indian Ocean. The influence of Pacific air-sea coupled process on the Indian Ocean variability was investigated carefully by conducting numerical experiments. Results show that the occurrence frequency of positive/negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event will decrease/increase with the presence/absence of the coupled process in the Pacific Ocean. Further analysis demonstrated that the air-sea coupled process in the Pacific Ocean affects the IOD variability mainly by influencing the zonal gradient of thermocline via modulating the background sea surface wind.

海气热通量与东亚夏季风的关系

本文采用基于风切变的季风指数确定了多年季风爆发的时间；使用实测资料计算分析了2008年南海季风爆发前后海气通量的特征；基于COARE3.0算法，用NCEP2中海气要素再分析资料计算了海气热通量场并与NCEP2中原始热通量场进行了比较；利用EOF方法得到季风爆发早晚年份海气热通量场的时空特征；利用SVD方法分析了热通量场及海温场与季风的关系，初步探讨了海气热通量的变化影响季风爆发的过程和机理。结果表明： 1、2008年南海夏季风爆发期间热带气旋对海气要素的影响较大。动量交换系数与热量交换系数是风速的函数，曲线在风速为4m/s时有一个转折的过程。 2、海温的变化超前于季风爆发时间和强度的变化；热通量的变化超前于海温的变化。热通量通过海温这一中间过程对季风产生作用。 3、季风爆发时间和强度的变化受前期2至3个月时黑潮区域热通量变化的影响。此海域的热通量较大的时候，其后的季风爆发偏早、偏强；反之，季风爆发偏晚、偏弱。

Role of the Jiaozhon Bay as a source/sink of CO2 over a seasonal cycle

The seasonal evolution of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and CO2 air-sea fluxes in the Jiaozhou Bay was investigated by means of a data set from four cruises covering a seasonal cycle during 2003 and 2004. The results revealed that DIC had no obvious seasonal variation, with an average concentration of 2035 mu mol kg(-1) C in surface water. However, the sea surface partial pressure of CO2 changed with the season. pCO(2) was 695 mu atm in July and 317 mu atm in February. Using the gas exchange coefficient calculated with Wanninkhof's model, it was concluded that the Jiaozhou Bay was a source of atmospheric CO, in spring, summer, and autumn, whereas it was a sink in winter. The Jiaozhou Bay released 2.60 x 10(11) mmol C to the atmosphere in spring, 6.18 x 10(11) mmol C in summer, and 3.01 x 10(11) mmol C in autumn, whereas it absorbed 5.32 x 10(10) mmol C from the atmosphere in winter. A total of 1.13 x 10(11) mmol C was released to the atmosphere over one year. The behaviour as a carbon source/sink obviously varied in the different regions of the Jiaozhou Bay. In February, the inner bay was a carbon sink, while the bay mouth and the Outer bay were carbon sources. In June and July, the inner and Outer bay were carbon sources, but the strength was different, increasing from the inner to the outer bay. In November, the inner bay was a carbon source, but the bay Mouth was a carbon sink. The outer bay was a weaker CO2 Source. These changes are controlled by many factors, the most important being temperature and phytoplankton. Water temperature in particular was the main factor controlling the carbon dioxide system and the behaviour of the Jiaozhou Bay as a carbon source/sink. The Jiaozhou Bay is a carbon dioxide source when the water temperature is higher than 6.6 degrees C. Otherwise, it is a carbon sink. Phytoplankton is another controlling factor that may play an important role in behaviour as a carbon source or sink in regions where the source or sink nature is weaker.

Methanol acetaldehyde and acetone in the surface waters of the Atlantic Ocean

Oceanic methanol, acetaldehyde, and acetone concentrations were measured during an Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) cruise from the UK to Chile (49°N to 39°S) in 2009. Methanol (48–361 nM) and acetone (2–24 nM) varied over the track with enrichment in the oligotrophic Northern Atlantic Gyre. Acetaldehyde showed less variability (3–9 nM) over the full extent of the transect. These oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) were also measured subsurface, with methanol and acetaldehyde mostly showing homogeneity throughout the water column. Acetone displayed a reduction below the mixed layer. OVOC concentrations did not consistently correlate with primary production or chlorophyll-a levels in the surface Atlantic Ocean. However, we did find a novel and significant negative relationship between acetone concentration and bacterial leucine incorporation, suggesting that acetone might be removed by marine bacteria as a source of carbon. Microbial turnover of both acetone and acetaldehyde was confirmed. Modeled atmospheric data are used to estimate the likely air-side OVOC concentrations. The direction and magnitude of air-sea fluxes vary for all three OVOCs depending on location. We present evidence that the ocean may exhibit regions of acetaldehyde under-saturation. Extrapolation suggests that the Atlantic Ocean represents an overall source of these OVOCs to the atmosphere at 3, 3, and 1 Tg yr−1 for methanol, acetaldehyde, and acetone, respectively.

Measurements of OVOC fluxes by eddy covariance using a proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer – method development at a coastal site

We present here vertical fluxes of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) measured with eddy covariance (EC) during the period of March to July 2012 near the southwest coast of the United Kingdom. The performance of the proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) for flux measurement is characterized, with additional considerations given to the homogeneity and stationarity assumptions required by EC. Observed mixing ratios and fluxes of OVOCs (specifically methanol, acetaldehyde, and acetone) vary significantly with time of day and wind direction. Higher mixing ratios and fluxes of acetaldehyde and acetone are found in the daytime and from the direction of a forested park, most likely due to light-driven emissions from terrestrial plants. Methanol mixing ratio and flux do not demonstrate consistent diel variability, suggesting sources in addition to plants. We estimate air-sea exchange and photochemical rates of these compounds, which are compared to measured vertical fluxes. For acetaldehyde, the mean (1 sigma) mixing ratio of 0.13 (0.02) ppb at night may be maintained by oceanic emission, while photochemical destruction out-paces production during the day. Air-sea exchange and photochemistry are probably net sinks of methanol and acetone in this region. Their nighttime mixing ratios of 0.46 (0.20) and 0.39 (0.08) ppb appear to be affected more by terrestrial emissions and long-distance transport, respectively.