The first global ocean reanalysis with focus on the Asian–Australian region was performed for the period October 1992 to June 2006. The 14-year experiment assimilated available observations of altimetric sea-level anomaly, satellite SST and quality-controlled in situ temperature and salinity profiles from a range of sources, including field surveys and the Argo float array. This study focuses o...

Persistent stratus/stratocumulus cloud decks in the southeast Pacific near the coasts of Peru and northern Chile play an important role in regional and global climate variability. Interannual variability of the upper ocean under stratus cloud decks in the southeast Pacific is investigated using ocean general circulation model (OGCM) experiments. The model was first forced with daily surface flu...

The behavior of the Mediterranean Water in the North Atlantic Ocean sector of a global ocean general circulation model is explored, starting from its entry point at the Strait of Gibraltar. The analysis focuses primarily on one experiment in which explicit watermass exchange between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic at the Strait of Gibraltar is permitted. The model produces an exchange ra...

A simulation is conducted with a realistic ocean general circulation model to investigate the three dimensional spreading of a passive tracer prescribed at the sea surface with the same distribution as the interdecadal sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies observed in the North Pacific. The tracers reaching the equator have the same sign as the major oval-shaped SST anomaly pattern in the cen...

We analyze North Pacific GEOSECS (1970s) and WOCE (1990s) observations to examine potential decadal trends of the marine biological carbon pump. Nitrate concentrations ð1⁄2NO 3 Þ and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) decreased significantly in intermediate waters (by 0.6 and 2:9 mmol kg ; respectively, at sy 1⁄4 27:4 kg m ; corresponding to E1050 m). In shallow waters (above roughly 750 m) 1⁄2N...

Water mass transformation in the North Atlantic is examined in an eddy-permitting simulation with the OCCAM ocean general circulation model, forced by realistic surface fluxes over the period 1985–2002. Three Atlantic regions are considered – the subtropics, mid-latitudes, the northeast Atlantic – along with the Labrador Sea. The oceanic boundaries of each region coincide with hydrographic sect...

The authors examine the key characteristics of the boreal winter extratropical circulation changes in response to anthropogenic aerosols, simulated with a coupled atmosphere–slab ocean general circulation model. The zonal-mean response features a pronounced equatorward shift of the Northern Hemisphere subtropical jet owing to the midlatitude aerosol cooling. The circulation changes also show st...

A number of large-scale sequestration strategies have been considered to help mitigate rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Here, we use an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to evaluate the efficiency of one such strategy currently receiving much attention, the direct injection of liquid CO2 into selected regions of the abyssal ocean. We find that currents typically transport...

A simple model is developed of the lower limb of the meridional overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean based on residual-mean theory. It is hypothesized that the strength of the lower-limb overturning ( ) is strongly controlled by the magnitude of abyssal diapycnal mixing ( ) and that of mesoscale eddy transfer (K ). In particular, it is argued that K. The scaling and associated theory f...

8 Abstract One-third of the world’s coral reefs have dis9 appeared over the last 30 years, and a further third is under 10 threat today from various stress factors. The main global 11 stress factors on coral reefs have been identified as changes 12 in sea surface temperature (SST) and changes in surface 13 seawater aragonite saturation (Xarag). Here, we use a cli14 mate model of intermediate co...