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1.
The sensitivity of tropical Atlantic climate to upper ocean mixing is investigated using an ocean-only model and a coupled ocean–atmosphere model. The upper ocean thermal structure and associated atmospheric circulation prove to be strongly related to the strength of upper ocean mixing. Using the heat balance in the mixed layer it is shown that an excessively cold equatorial cold tongue can be attributed to entrainment flux at the base of the oceanic mixed layer, that is too large. Enhanced entrainment efficiency acts to deepen the mixed layer and causes strong reduction in the upper ocean divergence in the central equatorial Atlantic. As a result, the simulated sea surface temperature, thermocline structure, and upwelling velocities are close to the observed estimates. In the coupled model, the seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) reduces when the entrainment efficiency in the oceanic mixed layer is enhanced. The precipitation rates decrease in the equatorial region and increase along 10°N, resulting in a more realistic Atlantic Marine ITCZ. The reduced meridional surface temperature gradient in the eastern tropical Atlantic prohibits the development of convective precipitation in the southeastern part of the tropical Atlantic. Also, the simulation of tropical Atlantic variability as expressed in the meridional gradient mode and the eastern cold tongue mode improves when the entrainment efficiency is enhanced.  相似文献   

2.
The thermodynamics of the seasonal evolution of the Southwestern Tropical Atlantic Warm Pool (hereafter SWTAWP), which is delimited by the 28 °C isotherm, is investigated using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). Results indicate that the net heat flux is responsible for the appearance and extinction of the SWTAWP. From March to May, the SWTAWP attains its maximum development and sometimes merges with equatorial warm waters towards the African continent, whose development follows the same period. Along the equator, the combination of oceanic terms (i.e., advection and diffusion) is important to promote the separation – when it occurs – of equatorial warm waters from southwestern tropical waters, which develops off the Brazilian coast. An analysis of the relative contribution of the temperature tendency terms of the mixed layer (ML) heat budget over the appearance, development and extinction of the SWTAWP is also done. The most important term for warming and cooling inside of the ML is the net heat flux at the sea surface. The ML is heated by the atmosphere between October and April, whereas the upper ocean cools down between May and September. The highest heat content values occur during the lower-temperature period (August to October), which is linked to the deepening of the ML during this time period. The horizontal advection along the equator is important, particularly at the eastern domain, which is influenced by the cold tongue. In this area, the vertical diffusive term is also significant; however, it presents values near zero outside the equator. These results contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of the heat budget within the tropical Atlantic, as previous studies over this region focused along the equator only.  相似文献   

3.
Seasonal to interannual variations of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) in the central Atlantic at 23°W are studied using shipboard observation taken during the period 1999–2011 as well as moored velocity time series covering the period May 2005–June 2011. The seasonal variations are dominated by an annual harmonic of the EUC transport and the EUC core depth (both at maximum during September), and a semiannual harmonic of the EUC core velocity (maximum during April and September). Substantial interannual variability during the period of moored observation included anomalous cold/warm equatorial Atlantic cold tongue events during 2005/2008. The easterly winds in the western equatorial Atlantic during boreal spring that represent the preconditioning of cold/warm events were strong/weak during 2005/2008 and associated with strong/weak boreal summer EUC transport. The anomalous year 2009 was instead associated with weak preconditioning and smallest EUC transport on record from January to July, but during August coldest SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Atlantic were observed. The interannual variations of the EUC are discussed with respect to recently described variability of the tropical Atlantic Ocean.  相似文献   

4.
 The mechanisms responsible for the seasonal cycle in the tropical central and eastern Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) are investigated using a coupled general circulation model. We find that the annual westward propagation of SST anomalies along the equator is explained by a two-stage process. The first stage sets the phase of the variation at the eastern boundary. The strengthening of the local Hadley Circulation in boreal summer leads to a strengthening of the northward winds that blow across the equator. These stronger winds drive enhanced evaporation and entrainment cooling of the oceanic mixed layer. The resulting change in SST is greatest in the east because the mixed layer is at its shallowest there. As the east Pacific SST cools the zonal SST gradient in the central Pacific becomes more negative. This development signals the onset of the second stage in the seasonal variation of equatorial SST. In response to the anomalous SST gradient the local westward wind stress increases. This increase drives cooling of the oceanic mixed layer in which no single mechanism dominates: enhanced evaporation, wind-driven entrainment, and westward advection all contribute. We discuss the role that equatorial upwelling plays in modulating mixed layer depth and hence the entrainment cooling, and we highlight the importance of seasonal variations in mixed layer depth. In sum these processes act to propagate the SST anomaly westward. Received: 22 February 1999 / Accepted: 20 March 2000  相似文献   

5.
The authors investigate the relationship between bias in simulated sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial eastern Pacific cold tongue during the boreal spring as simulated by an oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) and minimal wind mixing (MWM) at the surface. The cold bias of simulated SST is greatest during the boreal spring, at approximately 3°C. A sensitivity experiment reducing MWM by one order of magnitude greatly alleviates cold biases, especially in March-April. The decrease in bias is primarily due to weakened vertical mixing, which preserves heat in the uppermost layer and results in warmer simulated SST. The reduction in vertical mixing also leads to a weak westward current in the upper layer, which further contributes to warmer SST estimates. These findings imply that there are large uncertainties about simple model parameters such as MWM at the oceanic surface.  相似文献   

6.
Many coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models (GCMs) suffer serious biases in the tropical Atlantic including a southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the annual mean, a westerly bias in equatorial surface winds, and a failure to reproduce the eastern equatorial cold tongue in boreal summer. The present study examines an ensemble of coupled GCMs and their uncoupled atmospheric component to identify common sources of error. It is found that the westerly wind bias also exists in the atmospheric GCMs forced with observed sea surface temperature, but only in boreal spring. During this time sea-level pressure is anomalously high (low) in the western (eastern) equatorial Atlantic, which appears to be related to deficient (excessive) precipitation over tropical South America (Africa). In coupled simulations, this westerly bias leads to a deepening of the thermocline in the east, which prevents the equatorial cold tongue from developing in boreal summer. Thus reducing atmospheric model errors during boreal spring may lead to improved coupled simulations of tropical Atlantic climate.  相似文献   

7.
Most coupled general circulation models (GCMs) perform poorly in the tropical Atlantic in terms of climatological seasonal cycle and interannual variability. The reasons for this poor performance are investigated in a suite of sensitivity experiments with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) coupled GCM. The experiments show that a significant portion of the equatorial SST biases in the model is due to weaker than observed equatorial easterlies during boreal spring. Due to these weak easterlies, the tilt of the equatorial thermocline is reduced, with shoaling in the west and deepening in the east. The erroneously deep thermocline in the east prevents cold tongue formation in the following season despite vigorous upwelling, thus inhibiting the Bjerknes feedback. It is further shown that the surface wind errors are due, in part, to deficient precipitation over equatorial South America and excessive precipitation over equatorial Africa, which already exist in the uncoupled atmospheric GCM. Additional tests indicate that the precipitation biases are highly sensitive to land surface conditions such as albedo and soil moisture. This suggests that improving the representation of land surface processes in GCMs offers a way of improving their performance in the tropical Atlantic. The weaker than observed equatorial easterlies also contribute remotely, via equatorial and coastal Kelvin waves, to the severe warm SST biases along the southwest African coast. However, the strength of the subtropical anticyclone and along-shore winds also play an important role.  相似文献   

8.
The termination of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) in the eastern equatorial Atlantic during boreal summer and fall, and the fate of the associated saline water masses, are analyzed from in situ hydrological and currents data collected during 19 hydrographic cruises between 2000 and 2007, complemented by observations from Argo profiling floats and PIRATA moorings, and from a numerical simulation of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean for the period 1993–2007. An intense variability of the circulation and hydrological properties is evidenced from observations in the upper thermocline (24.5–26.2 isopycnal layer) between June and November. During early boreal summer, saline water masses are transported eastward in the upper thermocline to the African coast within the EUC, and recirculate westward on both sides of the EUC. In mid-boreal summer, the EUC weakens in the upper thermocline and the equatorial salinity maximum disappears due to intense mixing with the surface waters during the upwelling season. The extra-equatorial salinity maxima are also partially eroded during the boreal summer, with a slight poleward migration of the southern hemisphere maximum until late boreal summer. The upper EUC reappears in September, feeding again the eastern equatorial Atlantic with saline waters until boreal spring. During December–January, numerical results suggest a second seasonal weakening of the EUC in the Gulf of Guinea, with a partial erosion of the associated equatorial salinity maximum.  相似文献   

9.
Coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) commonly fail to simulate the eastern equatorial Atlantic boreal summer cold tongue and produce a westerly equatorial trade wind bias. This tropical Atlantic bias problem is investigated with a high-resolution (27-km atmosphere represented by the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, 9-km ocean represented by the Regional Ocean Modeling System) coupled regional climate model. Uncoupled atmospheric simulations test climate sensitivity to cumulus, land-surface, planetary boundary layer, microphysics, and radiation parameterizations and reveal that the radiation scheme has a pronounced impact in the tropical Atlantic. The CAM radiation simulates a dry precipitation (up to ?90%) and cold land-surface temperature (up to ?8?K) bias over the Amazon related to an over-representation of low-level clouds and almost basin-wide westerly trade wind bias. The Rapid Radiative Transfer Model and Goddard radiation simulates doubled Amazon and Congo Basin precipitation rates and a weak eastern Atlantic trade wind bias. Season-long high-resolution coupled regional model experiments indicate that the initiation of the warm eastern equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) bias is more sensitive to the local rather than basin-wide trade wind bias and to a wet Congo Basin instead of dry Amazon—which differs from AOGCM simulations. Comparisons between coupled and uncoupled simulations suggest a regional Bjerknes feedback confined to the eastern equatorial Atlantic amplifies the initial SST, wind, and deepened thermocline bias, while barrier layer feedbacks are relatively unimportant. The SST bias in some CRCM simulations resembles the typical AOGCM bias indicating that increasing resolution is unlikely a simple solution to this problem.  相似文献   

10.
Caribbean rainfall and associated regional-scale ocean–atmosphere anomalies are analyzed during and after warm pool (WP) and cold tongue (CT) El Niño (EN) events (i.e. from the usual peak of EN events in boreal winter to next summer from 1950 to 2011). During and after a CT event, a north–south dipolar pattern with positive (negative) rainfall anomalies over the northern (southern) Caribbean during the boreal winter tends to reverse in spring, and then to vanish in summer. On the contrary, during and after a WP event, weak rainfall anomalies during the boreal winter intensify themselves from spring, with anomalous wet conditions over most of the Caribbean basin observed during summer, except over the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The Caribbean rainfall anomalies associated with WP and CT events are shaped by competition between at least four different, but interrelated, mechanisms; (1) the near-equatorial large-scale subsidence anomaly over the equatorial Atlantic linked to the zonal adjustment of the Walker circulation; (2) the extra-tropical wave-like train combining positive phase of the Pacific/North American mode and negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation; (3) the wind-evaporation-sea surface temperature (SST) positive feedback coupling warmer-than-normal SST with weaker-than-normal low level easterlies over the tropical North Atlantic; and (4) the air-sea coupling between the speed of low level easterlies, including the Caribbean low level jet, and the SST anomaly (SSTA) gradient between the Caribbean basin and the eastern equatorial Pacific. It seems that Caribbean rainfall anomalies are shaped mostly by mechanisms (1–3) during CT events from the boreal winter to spring. These mechanisms seem less efficient during WP events when the atmospheric response seems driven mostly by mechanism (4), coupling positive west-east SSTA gradient with weaker-than-normal low level easterlies, and secondary by mechanism (3), from the boreal spring to summer.  相似文献   

11.
Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the eastern tropical Atlantic are crucial for climate variability within the tropical belt. Despite this importance, state-of-the-art climate models show a large SST warm bias in this region. Knowledge about the seasonal mixed layer (ML) heat budget is a prerequisite for understanding SST mean state and its variability. Within this study all contributions to the seasonal ML heat budget are estimated at four locations within the Atlantic cold tongue (ACT) that are representative for the western (0°N, 23°W), central (0°N, 10°W) and eastern (0°N, 0°E) equatorial as well as the southern (10°S, 10°W) ACT. To estimate the contribution of the diapycnal heat flux due to turbulence an extensive data set of microstructure observations collected during ten research cruises between 2005 and 2012 is analyzed. The results for the equatorial ACT indicate that with the inclusion of the diapycnal heat flux the seasonal ML heat budget is balanced. Within the equatorial region, the diapycnal heat flux is essential for the development of the ACT. It dominates over all other cooling terms in the central and eastern equatorial ACT, while it is of similar size as the zonal advection in the western equatorial ACT. In contrast, the SST evolution in the southern ACT region can be explained entirely by air-sea heat fluxes.  相似文献   

12.
The simulation of the mean seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST) remains a challenge for coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models (OAGCMs). Here we investigate how the numerical representation of clouds and convection affects the simulation of the seasonal variations of tropical SST. For this purpose, we compare simulations performed with two versions of the same OAGCM differing only by their convection and cloud schemes. Most of the atmospheric temperature and precipitation differences between the two simulations reflect differences found in atmosphere-alone simulations. They affect the ocean interior down to 1,000 m. Substantial differences are found between the two coupled simulations in the seasonal march of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the eastern part of the Pacific and Atlantic basins, where the equatorial upwelling develops. The results confirm that the distribution of atmospheric convection between ocean and land during the American and African boreal summer monsoons plays a key role in maintaining a cross equatorial flow and a strong windstress along the equator, and thereby the equatorial upwelling. Feedbacks between convection, large-scale circulation, SST and clouds are highlighted from the differences between the two simulations. In one case, these feedbacks maintain the ITCZ in a quite realistic position, whereas in the other case the ITCZ is located too far south close to the equator.  相似文献   

13.
Significant systematic errors in the tropical Atlantic Ocean are common in state-of-the-art coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models. In this study, a set of ensemble hindcasts from the NCEP coupled forecast system (CFS) is used to examine the initial growth of the coupled model bias. These CFS hindcasts are 9-month integrations starting from perturbed real-time oceanic and atmospheric analyses for 1981–2003. The large number of integrations from a variety of initial states covering all months provides a good opportunity to examine how the model systematic errors grow. The monthly climatologies of ensemble hindcasts from various initial months are compared with both observed and analyzed oceanic and atmospheric datasets. Our analyses show that two error patterns are dominant in the hindcasts. One is the warming of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the southeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. This error grows faster in boreal summer and fall and peaks in November–December at round 2°C in the open ocean. It is caused by an excessive model surface shortwave radiative flux in this region, especially from boreal summer to fall. The excessive radiative forcing is in turn caused by the CFS inability to reproduce the observed amount of low cloud cover in the southeastern ocean and its seasonal increase. According to a comparison between the seasonal climatologies from the CFS hindcasts and a long-term simulation of the atmospheric model forced with observed SST, the CFS low cloud and radiation errors are inherent to its atmospheric component. On the other hand, the SST error in CFS is a major cause of the model’s southward bias of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in boreal winter and spring. An analysis of the SST errors of the 6-month ensemble hindcasts by seven coupled models in the Development of a European Multimodel Ensemble System for Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction project shows that this SST error pattern is common in coupled climate hindcasts. The second error pattern is an excessive deepening of the model thermocline depth to the north of the equator from the western coast toward the central ocean. This error grows fastest in boreal summer. It is forced by an overly strong local anticyclonic surface wind stress curl and is in turn related to the weakened northeast trade winds in summer and fall. The thermocline error in the northwest delays the annual shoaling of the equatorial thermocline in the Gulf of Guinea remotely through the equatorial waveguide.  相似文献   

14.
Lidar observations of boundary-layer development during a cold air outbreak over the Atlantic Ocean were examined. Very rapid rise rates were measured in the first 20 km off the coast. A large region of partial cloudiness was found to exist between the totally clear region near shore and the overcast region far from the coast. As the layer became overcast, rise rate of the boundary layer tripled, suggesting a direct relation between cloudiness and entrainment. Boundary-layer evolution was reasonably well simulated by a simple slab model. The model was not capable of predicting the area of partial cloudiness, nor the region of rapid entrainment near the coast.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract

In response to the alternations between the boreal summer Southwest and the winter Northeast monsoons, the upper‐hydrospheric structure of the tropical Indian Ocean experiences drastic seasonal changes. All year‐round the zone 10–20°S is characterized by a thick and deep thermocline and a ridge in ocean surface topography, while at 0–10°S a tongue protruding from the African coast eastward features a thin and shallow thermocline and a trough in the ocean surface. The trough and ridge mark the equatorial and polar boundaries of the South Equatorial Current. The eastward depression of isotherms and the rise of the ocean surface along the equator are most pronounced around May‐June and November‐December, or lagging somewhat behind the jet‐like surface currents, which are forced by the strong westerly winds sweeping the equatorial zone during limited intervals of the monsoon transitions. Monsoonal changes are particularly dramatic in the northwestern Indian Ocean. From June to August, the thermocline rises and surface waters cool off the coasts of Somalia and Arabia, while in the south‐central Arabian Sea isothermal surfaces bulge downward and the thermocline deepens, with two different centres that appear related to the well known pair of whirls in the surface circulation. During the boreal summer Southwest monsoon, relatively fresh waters appear off the coasts of Somalia and Arabia, further reflecting coastal upwelling; by contrast, downwelling in the central Arabian Sea is accompanied by a core of relatively saline waters. Salinity is overall smallest in the rainfall‐abundant Southeast Asian waters and the Bay of Bengal and large in the desertic regions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Particularly prominent is a tongue of relatively fresh waters centred somewhat to the south of 10°S extending from the Timor Sea towards the western Indian Ocean and reflecting intrusion from the Southeast Asian seas and the Western Pacific.  相似文献   

16.
The climatology and interannual variability of sea surface salinity(SSS) and freshwater flux(FWF) in the equatorial Pacific are analyzed and evaluated using simulations from the Beijing Normal University Earth System Model(BNU-ESM).The simulated annual climatology and interannual variations of SSS, FWF, mixed layer depth(MLD), and buoyancy flux agree with those observed in the equatorial Pacific. The relationships among the interannual anomaly fields simulated by BNU-ESM are analyzed to illustrate the climate feedbacks induced by FWF in the tropical Pacific. The largest interannual variations of SSS and FWF are located in the western-central equatorial Pacific. A positive FWF feedback effect on sea surface temperature(SST) in the equatorial Pacific is identified. As a response to El Ni ?no–Southern Oscillation(ENSO),the interannual variation of FWF induces ocean processes which, in turn, enhance ENSO. During El Ni ?no, a positive FWF anomaly in the western-central Pacific(an indication of increased precipitation rates) acts to enhance a negative salinity anomaly and a negative surface ocean density anomaly, leading to stable stratification in the upper ocean. Hence, the vertical mixing and entrainment of subsurface water into the mixed layer are reduced, and the associated El Ni ?no is enhanced. Related to this positive feedback, the simulated FWF bias is clearly reflected in SSS and SST simulations, with a positive FWF perturbation into the ocean corresponding to a low SSS and a small surface ocean density in the western-central equatorial Pacific warm pool.  相似文献   

17.
This study aims to explore the relative role of oceanic dynamics and surface heat fluxes in the warming of southern Arabian Sea and southwest Indian Ocean during the development of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events by using National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) daily reanalysis data and Global Ocean Data Assimilation System (GODAS) monthly mean ocean reanalysis data from 1982 to 2013, based on regression analysis, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis and combined with a 2? layer dynamic upper-ocean model. The results show that during the initial stage of IOD events, warm downwelling Rossby waves excited by an anomalous anticyclone over the west Indian Peninsula, southwest Indian Ocean and southeast Indian Ocean lead to the warming of the mixed layer by reducing entrainment cooling. An anomalous anticyclone over the west Indian Peninsula weakens the wind over the Arabian Sea and Somali coast, which helps decrease the sea surface heat loss and shallow the surface mixed layer, and also contributes to the sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the southern Arabian Sea by inhibiting entrainment. The weakened winds increase the SST along the Somali coast by inhibiting upwelling and zonal advection. The wind and net sea surface heat flux anomalies are not significant over the southwest Indian Ocean. During the antecedent stage of IOD events, the warming of the southern Arabian Sea is closely connected with the reduction of entrainment cooling caused by the Rossby waves and the weakened wind. With the appearance of an equatorial easterly wind anomaly, the warming of the southwest Indian Ocean is not only driven by weaker entrainment cooling caused by the Rossby waves, but also by the meridional heat transport carried by Ekman flow. The anomalous sea surface heat flux plays a key role to damp the warming of the west pole of the IOD.  相似文献   

18.
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19.
In this study, the CNRM-CM5 model is shown to simulate too warm SSTs in the tropical Atlantic as most state-of-the-art CMIP5 models. The warm bias develops within 1 or 2 months in decadal experiments initialised in January using an observationally derived state. To better quantify the role of the atmospheric biases in initiating this warm SST bias, several sensitivity experiments have been performed. In a first set of experiments, the surface solar net heat flux sent to the ocean model is academically corrected over the southeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. This correction locally reduces the warm SST bias by more than 50 % with some remote impacts over equatorial regions. In contrast, the solar heat flux correction has locally little impact on the spring cooling. A second set of experiments quantifies the role of surface winds, using a nudging technique. When applied in a narrow equatorial region, the wind correction mainly improves the SST annual cycle amplitude along the Equator. It promotes not only the spring cooling along the Equator in preconditioning the mixed-layer depth but also in the southeastern Atlantic along the African coast. These local and remote effects are attributed to the more realistic representation of the oceanic equatorial circulation, driven by corrected winds. These results are consistent with those reported by Wahl et al. (Clim Dyn 36:891–906, 2011) in a very similar study with the Kiel Climate Model. The solar and wind biases have comparable effects in their study, although the importance of off-equatorial winds is less clear in our study. Diagnosing the wind energy flux provides a physical understanding of the equatorial region. When combining the corrections of both the equatorial wind and the southeastern solar heat flux, no obvious feedback between them is evidenced. The present study also emphasizes the need to consider two time-scales, the annual mean and the seasonal cycle, as well as two regions, the equatorial and the southeastern Atlantic regions, to comprehensively address the Atlantic SST bias. As pointed out in Richter (Clim Dyn, doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1624-5, 2013), the need to improve the atmospheric component of the CNRM-CM model is emphasized, even though strong positive coupling feedbacks are highlighted.  相似文献   

20.
陈鲜艳 《大气科学进展》2009,26(5):1015-1026
Satellite observations of SSTs have revealed the existence of unstable waves in the equatorial eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These waves have a 20-40-day periodicity with westward phase speeds of 0.4-0.6 m s-1 and wavelengths of 1000-2000 km during boreal summer and fall. They are generally called tropical instability waves (TIWs). This study investigates TIWs simulated by a high-resolution coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM). The horizontal resolution of the model is 120 km in...  相似文献   

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