his work examine the meridional Ekman volume, heat and salt transport in the tropical Atlantic using ship-board and satellite observations, e.g., CTD, underway-CTD, ADCP, and wind data. We find that the top of the pycnocline is the best representation fo the penetration depth of the Ekman flow in the tropical Atlantic.
Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2019
This paper highlights the role of western boundary current system in the interannual variability of the Antarctic Intermediate Water in the tropical Northwestern Atlantic.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and water mass property changes in the north Atlantic are jointly studied using a compilation of hydrographic section data, array observation, satellite altimetry, and ocean syntheses pruduct. The results indicate that water mass property and overturning circulation do not vary at the same pace, suggesting a higher degree of decoupling between the two processes than we previously expect.
Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 2022
The Atlantic Subtropical Cells (STCs) consist of poleward Ekman transport in the surface layer, subduction in the subtropics, and equatorward transport in the thermocline layer that largely compensates the surface Ekman divergence and closes the STCs via equatorial upwelling. As a result, the STCs play an important role in connecting the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean, in terms of heat, freshwater, oxygen, and nutrients exchange. In this study, we evaluated the performance of CMIP6 climate models in simulation the Atlantic STCs…
Published in Communications Earth & Environment, 2023
Understanding the variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is essential for better predictions of our changing climate. Here we present an updated time series (August 2014 to June 2020) from the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP). The 6-year time series allows us to observe the seasonality of the subpolar overturning and meridional heat and freshwater transports. The overturning peaks in late spring and reaches a minimum in early winter, with a peak-to-trough range of 9.0 Sv. The overturning seasonal timing can be explained by winter transformation and the export of dense water, modulated by a seasonally varying Ekman transport.
The AMOC is important for the global climate due to its role in redistributing heat, freshwater, and dissolved gases over broad spatial scales. Through continuous observations, we now have 8‐year (2014–2022) time series of volume, heat and freshwater transports in the subpolar North Atlantic (∼60°N). Using these data, our analysis focuses on characterizing the interannual variability of the AMOC. We first investigated the importance of boundary currents and found that any single boundary current can account for up to ∼30% of the total AMOC interannualvariability. We then quantified the relationship between the water mass formation through surface cooling and freshening, the storage of water masses in ocean basins, and the AMOC on interannual timescales. We find an expected relationship in the eastern subpolar basin (between Greenland andthe UK), where formation leads to increased basin storage, and further results in enhanced AMOC.