Warmer SST and more rain in the Northern Hemisphere are observed year-round in the tropical eastern Pacific with southerly wind crossing the equator toward the atmospheric heating. The southerlies are minimal during boreal spring, when two precipitation maxima straddle the equator. Fourteen atmosphere– ocean coupled GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) and one coupled reg...

Satellite microwave measurements are analyzed, revealing robust covariability in sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed over the Kuroshio Extension (KE) east of Japan. Ocean hydrodynamic instabilities cause the KE to meander and result in large SST variations. Increased (reduced) wind speeds are found to be associated with warm (cold) SST anomalies. This positive SST–wind correlation in K...

The relationship between storms and extreme ocean waves in the North Sea is assessed using a long-period wave data set and storms identified in the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). An ensemble sensitivity analysis is used to provide information on the spatial and temporal forcing from mean sea-level pressure and surface wind associated with extreme ocean wave height responses. Extreme o...

We have mapped the superwind/halo region of the nearby starburst galaxy M82 in the mid-infrared with Spitzer − IRS. The spectral regions covered include the H2S(1)− S(3), [NeII], [NeIII] emission lines and PAH features. We estimate the total warm H2 mass and the kinetic energy of the outflowing warm molecular gas to be between Mwarm ∼ 5− 17× 10 6 M⊙ and EK ∼ 6− 20× 10 53 erg. Using the ratios o...

Extratropical cyclones are responsible for most of the precipitation and wind damage in the midlatitudes during the cold season, but there are still uncertainties on how they will change in a warming climate. A ubiquitous problem among general circulation models (GCMs) is a lack of cloudiness over the southern oceans that may be in part caused by a lack of clouds in cyclones. This study analyze...

The average rate of melting at the base of the large Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the southern Weddell Sea is currently low, but projected to increase dramatically within the next century. In a model study, melt rates increase as changing ice conditions cause a redirection of a coastal current, bringing warm water of open ocean origin through the Filchner Depression and into the Filchner Ice She...

We present a first analysis of a high resolution X-ray spectrum of the ionized stellar wind of Vela X-1 during eclipse. The data were obtained with the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer onboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The spectrum is resolved into emission lines with fluxes between 0.02 and 1.04×10−4 photons cm−2s−1. We identify lines from a variety of charge states, includin...

The 1997–98 El Niño was both unusually strong and terminated unusually. Warm eastern equatorial Pacific (EEqP) sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) exceeded 4°C at the event peak and lasted well into boreal spring of 1998, even though subsurface temperatures began cooling in December 1997. The oceanic processes that controlled this unusual termination are explored here and can be character...

Composites of wind speeds, equivalent potential temperature, mean sea level pressure, vertical velocity, and relative humidity have been produced for the 100 most intense extratropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere winter for the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and the high resolution global environment model (HiGEM). Features of conceptual models of cyclone structure—the warm conveyor b...