| 1. |
- Stranne, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Acoustic mapping of mixed layer depth
- 2018
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Ingår i: Ocean Science. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1812-0784 .- 1812-0792. ; 14:3, s. 503-514
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ocean surface mixed layer is a nearly universal feature of the world oceans. Variations in the depth of the mixed layer (MLD) influences the exchange of heat, fresh water (through evaporation), and gases between the atmosphere and the ocean and constitutes one of the major factors controlling ocean primary production as it affects the vertical distribution of biological and chemical components in near-surface waters. Direct observations of the MLD are traditionally made by means of conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) casts. However, CTD instrument deployment limits the observation of temporal and spatial variability in the MLD. Here, we present an alternative method in which acoustic mapping of the MLD is done remotely by means of commercially available ship-mounted echo sounders. The method is shown to be highly accurate when the MLD is well defined and biological scattering does not dominate the acoustic returns. These prerequisites are often met in the open ocean and it is shown that the method is successful in 95% of data collected in the central Arctic Ocean. The primary advantages of acoustically mapping the MLD over CTD measurements are (1) considerably higher temporal and horizontal resolutions and (2) potentially larger spatial coverage.
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| 2. |
- Broomé, Sara, 1989-
(författare)
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Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas : A satellite altimetry perspective on ocean circulation
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas contributes to the mild climate of Northern Europe and is the main oceanic source of heat for the Arctic. The northward bound transport of the warm and saline Atlantic Water is mediated by a topographically constrained cyclonic boundary current along the Norwegian continental slope. The analysis within this thesis is based on satellite observations of dynamic Sea Surface Heights (SSH) from 1993 to the recent present, combined with both hydrographic observations and modelling. It provides some new perspectives and results, as well as corroborates the essential role of bottom topography for the circulation in the Nordic Seas.In the first part of the thesis, the topographic constraint is used in the analysis by examining the satellite-derived SSH along topographic contours. We find stationary along-contour anomalies that indicate deviations from strict topographic steering. However, we show that these deviations are dynamically consistent with, and can be explained by, potential vorticity conservation in an adiabatic steady-state model for flow over a topographic slope. The analysis along topographic contours is further developed to study northward-propagating, low-frequency ocean temperature signals. These signals have an expression in the SSH and their propagation speed is remarkably slow compared to the current speed. We propose a conceptual model of shear dispersion effects, in which the effective advection speed of a tracer is determined not only by the rapid current core, but by a mean velocity taken over the cross-flow extent of Atlantic Water. The model predicts a reduced effective tracer advection velocity, comparable to the one observed.The close connection between anomalies in SSH and heat content is further used to study decadal variability in the Nordic Seas. There is a shift in decadal trends in the mid-2000s, from a period of strong increase in SSH and heat content to a more stagnant period. We find this variability to be forced remotely, rather than by local air-sea heat fluxes. By developing a conceptual model of ocean heat convergence, we are able to explain the broad features of the decadal changes with the temperature variability of the inflowing Atlantic Water from the subpolar North Atlantic.In the final part of the thesis, satellite-derived surface geostrophic velocity fields are used as input to a Lagrangian trajectory model. Based on this, we study the fractionation of the Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas between the two straits towards the Arctic Ocean: the Barents Sea Opening and the Fram Strait. This Lagrangian approach also provides insights on the origin of the water that reach the straits. We find that it is the frontal current branch, rather than the slope current, that contributes to the variability of the Barents Sea Opening inflow of warm Atlantic Water, and thus potentially to the climate of the Barents Sea and its sea ice cover.
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| 3. |
- Nilsson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Salinity-dominated thermohaline circulation in sill basins : can two stable equilibria exist?
- 2010
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Ingår i: Tellus. Series A, Dynamic meteorology and oceanography. - : Stockholm University Press. - 0280-6495 .- 1600-0870. ; 62:2, s. 123-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dynamics of a salinity-dominated thermohaline circulation in a sill basin is examined using a two-layer model. A prescribed freshwater supply acts to establish a stable stratification, working against a prescribed destabilizing temperature difference. The upper-layer outflow is in geostrophic balance and the upwelling is driven by a fixed energy supply to small-scale vertical mixing. The salinity-dominated flow may have two qualitatively different modes of operation. First, a mixing-limited regime, where the upper layer is shallower than the sill and the flow strength decreases with increasing density difference. Second, an overmixed regime, where the upper layer extends below the sill and the flow strength increases with density difference. Possibly, mixing-limited and overmixed equilibria, with widely different upper-layer depths, can exist for the same external parameters. In such cases, transitions between the two regimes are associated with abrupt changes of the salinity, depth and flow strength. The present results may be of relevance for ocean circulation in glacial climates and for interpretations of marine palaeo data, issues that are briefly discussed in the context of the Arctic Ocean.
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| 4. |
- Berger, Marit, et al.
(författare)
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The sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice to orbitally induced insolation changes : a study of the mid-Holocene Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project 2 and 3 simulations
- 2013
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 9:2, s. 969-982
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the present work the Arctic sea ice in the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial climates are analysed and compared on the basis of climate-model results from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project phase 2 (PMIP2) and phase 3 (PMIP3). The PMIP3 models generally simulate smaller and thinner sea-ice extents than the PMIP2 models both for the pre-industrial and the mid-Holocene climate. Further, the PMIP2 and PMIP3 models all simulate a smaller and thinner Arctic summer sea-ice cover in the mid-Holocene than in the pre-industrial control climate. The PMIP3 models also simulate thinner winter sea ice than the PMIP2 models. The winter sea-ice extent response, i.e. the difference between the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial climate, varies among both PMIP2 and PMIP3 models. Approximately one half of the models simulate a decrease in winter sea-ice extent and one half simulates an increase. The model-mean summer sea-ice extent is 11% (21 %) smaller in the mid-Holocene than in the pre-industrial climate simulations in the PMIP2 (PMIP3). In accordance with the simple model of Thorndike (1992), the sea-ice thickness response to the insolation change from the pre-industrial to the mid-Holocene is stronger in models with thicker ice in the pre-industrial climate simulation. Further, the analyses show that climate models for which the Arctic sea-ice responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are similar may simulate rather different sea-ice responses to the change in solar forcing between the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial. For two specific models, which are analysed in detail, this difference is found to be associated with differences in the simulated cloud fractions in the summer Arctic; in the model with a larger cloud fraction the effect of insolation change is muted. A sub-set of the mid-Holocene simulations in the PMIP ensemble exhibit open water off the north-eastern coast of Greenland in summer, which can provide a fetch for surface waves. This is in broad agreement with recent analyses of sea-ice proxies, indicating that beach-ridges formed on the north-eastern coast of Greenland during the early-to mid-Holocene.
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| 5. |
- Carlson, Henrik, 1986-
(författare)
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Atmospheric dynamics and the hydrologic cycle in warm climates
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Past warm climates represent one extreme of Earth's known climate states. Here, we study warm climates in both idealized simulations and full-complexity general circulation model (GCM) simulations of the early Eocene epoch, approximately 50 million years ago.In increasingly warmer idealized aquaplanet simulations, the amplitude of intra-seasonal tropical variability is enhanced. The anomalies propagate eastward in the tropics and resemble the observed Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). The strong MJO anomalies drive a momentum convergence on the equator that causes westerly winds in the troposphere, a state known as superrotation. The results in this thesis show that superrotation further enhances the MJO by affecting the penetration of midlatitude eddies into the deep tropics. An additional question is how a super-rotating atmosphere, a dramatically different general circulation regime compared to today, will affect the climate, potentially via changes in cloud distributions and ocean circulation. If the superrotation extends down to the surface near the equator, surface westerly winds will drive equatorial downwelling in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than upwelling as in the present climate. Here, we show that surface superrotation is unlikely in past warm climates, although this in part depends on the intensity of the vertical momentum transfer associated with cumulus convection and how this process is represented in a specific GCM. There is, currently, no consensus on what the specific mix of forcings was that caused the warm climates of the early Eocene. High greenhouse gases likely played a significant role, but simulations with reasonable greenhouse gas concentrations cannot reproduce the high temperatures estimated by proxy data. Here, we investigate both an early Eocene climate forced by high greenhouse gas concentrations and one forced by optically thinner clouds, with artificially increased cloud droplet radius that causes increased solar radiation at the surface. Both alternative warming scenarios produce nearly identical zonal mean temperatures, but the hydrologic cycle differs; the thinner clouds scenario has 11% larger global mean precipitation. Moreover, the results in this thesis indicate that a reasonable estimate of vegetation, based on the model simulation, is likely necessary to evaluate alternative warming scenarios with proxy data.
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| 6. |
- Kleman, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Pre-LGM Northern Hemisphere ice sheet topography
- 2013
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 9, s. 2365-2378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We here reconstruct the paleotopography of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the glacial maxima of marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b and 4.We employ a combined approach, blending geologically based reconstruction and numerical modeling, to arrive at probable ice sheet extents and topographies for each of these two time slices. For a physically based 3-D calculation based on geologically derived 2-D constraints, we use the University of Maine Ice Sheet Model (UMISM) to calculate ice sheet thickness and topography. The approach and ice sheet modeling strategy is designed to provide robust data sets of sufficient resolution for atmospheric circulation experiments for these previously elusive time periods. Two tunable parameters, a temperature scaling function applied to a spliced Vostok–GRIP record, and spatial adjustment of the climatic pole position, were employed iteratively to achieve a good fit to geological constraints where such were available. The model credibly reproduces the first-order pattern of size and location of geologically indicated ice sheets during marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b (86.2 kyr model age) and 4 (64 kyr model age). From the interglacial state of two north–south obstacles to atmospheric circulation (Rocky Mountains and Greenland), by MIS 5b the emergence of combined Quebec–central Arctic and Scandinavian–Barents-Kara ice sheets had increased the number of such highland obstacles to four. The number of major ice sheets remained constant through MIS 4, but the merging of the Cordilleran and the proto-Laurentide Ice Sheet produced a single continent-wide North American ice sheet at the LGM.
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| 7. |
- Liakka, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Interactions between stationary waves and ice sheets : linear versus nonlinear atmospheric response
- 2012
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Ingår i: Climate Dynamics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0930-7575 .- 1432-0894. ; 38:5-6, s. 1249-1262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the mutual interaction between topographically-forced atmospheric stationary waves and continental-scale ice sheets using a thermomechanical ice-sheet model coupled to a linear as well as a fully-nonlinear dry atmospheric primitive equation model. The focus is on how the stationary-wave induced ablation feeds back on the ice sheet. Simulations are conducted in which an embryonal ice mass, on an idealised “North American” continent, evolves to an equilibrium ice sheet. Under the coupling to the linear atmospheric model, the equilibrium ice sheet is primarily controlled by the ratio between the wavelength of the stationary waves and the zonal continental extent. When this ratio is near two, the ice sheet has its center of mass shifted far eastward and its shape is broadly reminiscent of the Laurentide ice sheet at LGM. For wavelengths comparable to the continental extent, however, the ice margin extends far equatorward on the central continent but is displaced poleward near the eastern coast. Remarkably, the coupling to the nonlinear atmospheric model yields equilibrium ice sheets that are virtually identical to the ones obtained in uncoupled simulations, i.e. a symmetric ice sheet with a zonal southern margin. Thus, the degree of linearity of the atmospheric response should control to what extent topographically-forced stationary waves can reorganise the structure of ice sheets. If the stationary-wave response is linear, the present results suggest that spatial reconstructions of past ice sheets can provide some information on the zonal-mean atmospheric circulation that prevailed.
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| 8. |
- Liakka, Johan, 1981-
(författare)
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The mutual interaction between the time-mean atmospheric circulation and continental-scale ice sheets
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Geomorphological evidence of glaciations exist for the Last Glacial Maximum (about 20 kyr ago). At this time, both North America and Eurasia were covered by extensive ice sheets which are both absent today. However, the temporal and spatial evolution of the ice sheets from the previous interglacial up to the fully-glaciated conditions at LGM is still unresolved and remains a vexing question in climate dynamics. The evolution of ice sheets is essentially controlled by the prevailing climate conditions. On glacial time-scales, the climate is shaped the by the orbital variations of the Earth, but also by internal feedbacks within the climate system. In particular, the ice sheets themselves have the potential to change the climate within they evolve. This thesis focuses on the interactions between ice sheets and the time-mean atmospheric circulation (stationary waves). It is studied how the stationary waves, which are forced by the ice-sheet topography, influence ice-sheet evolution through changing the near-surface air temperature. In this thesis, it is shown that the degree of linearity of the atmospheric response controls to what extent the stationary waves can reorganise the structure of ice sheet. Provided that the response is linear, the stationary waves constitute a leading-order feedback, which serves to increase the volume and deform the shape of ice sheets. If the stationary-wave response to ice-sheet topography is nonlinear in character, the impact on the ice-sheet evolution tends to be weak. However, it is further shown that the amplitude of the nonlinear topographical response, and hence its effect on the ice-sheet evolution, can be significantly enhanced if thermal cooling over the ice sheets is taken into account.
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