This study investigates the exchange of momentum between the atmosphere and ocean using data collected from four oceanic field experiments. Direct covariance estimates of momentum fluxes were collected in all four experiments and wind profiles were collected during three of them. The objective of the investigation is to improve parameterizations...
Full Text:
: On the exchange of momentum over the open ocean. J. Phys. Oceanogr.,
43, 1589–1610, doi:10.1175/JPO
Computing resources donated by volunteers have generated the first superensemble of regional climate model results, in which the Hadley Centre Regional Model, version 3P (HadRM3P), and Hadley Centre Atmosphere Model, version 3P (HadAM3P), were implemented for the western United States at 25-km resolution. Over 136,000 valid and complete 1-yr runs...
General circulation models (GCMs) predict that the global hydrological cycle will change in response to anthropogenic warming. However, these predictions remain uncertain, in particular, for precipitation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013, https://doi .org/10.1017/CB09781107415324.004). Held and Soden (2006, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3990.1) suggest that as lower tropospheric water vapor concentration increases in a...
The authors present inferences of diapycnal diffusivity from a compilation of over 5200 microstructure
profiles. As microstructure observations are sparse, these are supplemented with indirect measurements of
mixing obtained from (i) Thorpe-scale overturns from moored profilers, a finescale parameterization applied to
(ii) shipboard observations of upper-ocean shear, (iii) strain as...
The semidiurnal mode-1 internal tide receives 0.1-0.3 TW from the surface tide and is capable of propagating across ocean basins. The ultimate fate of mode-1 energy after long-distance propagation is poorly constrained by existing observations and numerical simulations. Here, global results from a two-dimensional semi-analytical model indicate that topographic scattering...
The Luzon Strait is the generation region for strong internal tides that radiate westward into the South China Sea and eastward into the western Pacific. Intrusions of the Kuroshio and strong mesoscale variability in the Luzon Strait can influence their generation and propagation. Here, the authors use eight moorings and...
Full Text:
Luzon Strait. Journal of
Physical Oceanography, 45(6), 1574-1594. doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0250.1
10.1175
Lateral stirring is a basic oceanographic phenomenon affecting the distribution of physical, chemical, and biological fields. Eddy stirring at scales on the order of 100 km (the mesoscale) is fairly well understood and explicitly represented in modern eddy-resolving numerical models of global ocean circulation. The same cannot be said for...
Observations of winds, waves, and turbulence at the ocean surface are compared with several analytic formulations and a numerical model for the input of turbulent kinetic energy by wave breaking and the subsequent dissipation. The observations are generally consistent with all of the formulations, although some differences are notable at...
Intensified diurnal tides are found along portions of the Oregon shelf (U.S. West Coast) based on analyses
of high-frequency (HF) radar surface current data and outputs of a 1-km resolution ocean circulation model.
The K₁ tidal currents with magnitudes near 0.07 m s⁻¹ over a wider part of the shelf...
The coastal region is home to many types of surface fronts that exist on a submesoscale (1-10 $km$). While in situ observations capture point or transect observations of frontal behavior subsurface, their complex spatial patterns can be well-captured using remote sensing techniques, which provide synoptic views of the ocean surface...