scholarly journals Sources, fate, and pathways of Leeuwin Current water in the Indian Ocean and Great Australian Bight: A Lagrangian study in an eddy-resolving ocean model

2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 1626-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Yit Sen Bull ◽  
Erik van Sebille
2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 701-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher L. Wolfe ◽  
Paola Cessi ◽  
Bruce D. Cornuelle

AbstractAn intrinsic mode of self-sustained, interannual variability is identified in a coarse-resolution ocean model forced by an annually repeating atmospheric state. The variability has maximum loading in the Indian Ocean, with a significant projection into the South Atlantic Ocean. It is argued that this intrinsic mode is caused by baroclinic instability of the model’s Leeuwin Current, which radiates out to the tropical Indian and South Atlantic Oceans as long Rossby waves at a period of 4 yr. This previously undescribed mode has a remarkably narrowband time series. However, the variability is not synchronized with the annual cycle; the phase of the oscillation varies chaotically on decadal time scales. The presence of this internal mode reduces the predictability of the ocean circulation by obscuring the response to forcing or initial condition perturbations. The signature of this mode can be seen in higher-resolution global ocean models driven by high-frequency atmospheric forcing, but altimeter and assimilation analyses do not show obvious signatures of such a mode, perhaps because of insufficient duration.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subekti Mujiasih ◽  
Jean-Marie Beckers ◽  
Alexander Barth

<p>Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) has been simulated for the Sunda Strait, the Java Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The simulation was undertaken for thirteen months of data period (August 2013 – August 2014). However, we only used four months period for validation, namely September – December 2013. The input data involved the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) ocean model output by considering atmospheric forcing from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), without and with tides forcing from TPXO and rivers. The output included vertical profile temperature and salinity, sea surface temperature (SST), seas surface height (SSH), zonal (u), and meridional (v) velocity. We compared the model SST to satellite SST in time series, SSH to tides gauges data in time series, the model u and v component velocity to High Frequency (HF) radial velocity. The vertical profile temperature and salinity were compared to Argo float data and XBT. Besides, we validated the amplitude and phase of the ROMS seas surface height to amplitude and phase of the tides-gauges, including four constituents (M2, S2, K1, O1).</p>


2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Caputi ◽  
S. de Lestang ◽  
M. Feng ◽  
A. Pearce

Previous studies have demonstrated that one area of greatest increase in surface sea temperatures (SST) (0.02°C per year) in the Indian Ocean over the last 50 years occurs off the lower west coast of Australia, an area dominated by the Leeuwin Current. The present paper examines water temperature trends at several coastal sites since the early 1970s: two rock lobster puerulus monitoring sites in shallow water (<5 m); four sites from a monitoring program onboard rock lobster vessels that provide bottom water temperature (<36 m); and an environmental monitoring site at Rottnest (0–50 m depth). Two global SST datasets are also examined. These data show that there was a strong seasonal variation in the historic increases in temperature off the lower west coast of Australia, with most of the increases (0.02–0.035°C per year) only focussed on 4–6 months over the austral autumn–winter with little or no increase (<0.01°C per year) apparent in the austral spring–summer period. These increases are also apparent after taking into account the interannual variation in the strength of the Leeuwin Current. The warming trend results in a change to the seasonal temperature cycle over the decades, with a delay in the peak in the temperature cycle during autumn between the 1950s and 2000s of ~10–20 days. A delay in the timing of the minimum temperature is also apparent at Rottnest from August–September to October. This seasonal variation in water temperature increases and its effect on the annual temperature cycle should be examined in climate models because it provides the potential to better understand the specific processes through which climate change and global warming are affecting this region of the Indian Ocean. It also provides an opportunity to further test the climate models to see whether this aspect is predicted in the future projections of how increases will be manifest. Any seasonal variation in water temperature increase has important implications for fisheries and the marine ecosystem because it may affect many aspects of the annual life cycle such as timing of growth, moulting, mating, spawning and recruitment, which have to be taken into account in the stock assessment and management of fisheries.


1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1915-1918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayan Yang ◽  
Lisan Yu ◽  
Chester J. Koblinsky ◽  
David Adamec

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3106-3130 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Murray ◽  
Nathaniel L. Bindoff ◽  
C. J. C. Reason

Abstract A near-global ocean model with resolution enhanced in the southern Indian Ocean has been spun up to seasonal equilibrium and then driven by NCEP–NCAR reanalysis 1 monthly mean forcings and Hadley SSTs over the period 1948–2002. The aim was to simulate changes in the subsurface properties observed in hydrographic surveys at 32°S in the Indian Ocean in 1965, 1987, and 2002. These surveys showed a zonally averaged cooling on isopycnals of 0.5° and 0.3°C in mode and intermediate waters between 1965 and 1987 and a warming of the mode water coupled with a continued cooling of the intermediate water between 1987 and 2002. The major changes in isopycnal depth and temperature modeled in this study were confined to the mode water and were qualitatively similar to those observed but concentrated in a lower density class and in the eastern half of the section. The dominant changes here were multidecadal, with maximum temperatures on the σθ = 26.7 kg m−3 isopycnal being reached in 1968 and minimum temperatures in 1990. The simulations showed a propagation of interannual anomalies toward the section from a region of deep late winter mixed layers in the southeast Indian Ocean within a period of several years. Surface temperatures in this region were lowest in the 1960s and highest in the late 1980s. Temperatures on isopycnals showed the opposite variation, consistent with SST having the controlling effect on mixed layer density and depth. Isopycnal depths within the mode water were strongly correlated with temperature, implying a redistribution of mode water density classes, the greatest volume of mode water being produced in a higher density class (σθ = 26.8–27.0 kg m–3) during the period of cooler surface forcing in the 1960s and 1970s than during the warmer period following (σθ = 26.6–26.8 kg m–3).


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1333-1347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Huang ◽  
Weiqing Han ◽  
Dongxiao Wang ◽  
Weiqiang Wang ◽  
Qiang Xie ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper investigates the features of the Equatorial Intermediate Current (EIC) in the Indian Ocean and its relationship with basin resonance at the semiannual time scale by using in situ observations, reanalysis output, and a continuously stratified linear ocean model (LOM). The observational results show that the EIC is characterized by prominent semiannual variations with velocity reversals and westward phase propagation and that it is strongly influenced by the pronounced second baroclinic mode structure but with identifiable vertical phase propagation. Similar behavior is found in the reanalysis data and LOM results. The simulation of wind-driven equatorial wave dynamics in the LOM reveals that the observed variability of the EIC can be largely explained by the equatorial basin resonance at the semiannual period, when the second baroclinic Rossby wave reflected from the eastern boundary intensifies the directly forced equatorial Kelvin and Rossby waves in the basin interior. The sum of the first 10 modes can reproduce the main features of the EIC. Among these modes, the resonant second baroclinic mode makes the largest contribution, which dominates the vertical structure, semiannual cycle, and westward phase propagation of the EIC. The other 9 modes, however, are also important, and the superposition of the first 10 modes produces downward energy propagation in the equatorial Indian Ocean.


2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. W. Humphries ◽  
D. J. Webb

Abstract. The Indonesian Throughflow is analysed in two runs of the OCCAM 1/4 degree global ocean model, one using monthly climatological winds and one using ECMWF analysed six-hourly winds for the period 1993 to 1998. The long-term model throughflow agrees with observations and the value predicted by Godfrey's Island Rule. The Island Rule has some skill in predicting the annual signal each year but is poor at predicting year to year and shorter term variations in the total flow especially in El Nino years. The spectra of transports in individual passages show significant differences between those connecting the region to the Pacific Ocean and those connecting with the Indian Ocean. This implies that different sets of waves are involved in the two regions. Vertical profiles of transport are in reasonable agreement with observations but the model overestimates the near surface transport through the Lombok Strait and the dense overflow from the Pacific through the Lifamatola Strait into the deep Banda Sea. In both cases the crude representation of the passages by the model appears responsible. In the north the model shows, as expected, that the largest transport is via the Makassar Strait. However this is less than expected and instead there is significant flow via the Halmahera Sea. If Godfrey's Island Rule is correct and the throughflow is forced by the northward flow between Australia and South America, then the Halmahers Sea route should be important. It is the most southerly route around New Guinea to the Indian Ocean and there is no apparent reason why the flow should go further north in order to pass through the Makassar Strait. The model result thus raises the question of why in reality the Makassar Strait route appears to dominate the throughflow.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 2231-2256
Author(s):  
E. Lambert ◽  
D. Le Bars ◽  
W. P. M. de Ruijter

Abstract. East of Madagascar, wind and surface buoyancy fluxes reinforce each other, leading to frontogenesis, outcrop and an eastward along-front flow: the South Indian Ocean Countercurrent (SICC). In the east the Leeuwin Current (LC) is a unique eastern boundary current which flows poleward along Australia. It is often described as a regional coastal current forced by an off-shore meridional density gradient or a sea surface slope, yet little is known of the forcing and dynamics that control these open ocean meridional gadients. To complete this understanding, we make use of both an ocean general circulation model and a conceptual two-layer model. The SICC impinges on west Australia and adds to a sea level slope and a southward geostrophic coastal jet: the Leeuwin Current. The SICC and the LC are thus dynamically connected. An observed transport maximum of the LC around 22° S is directly related to this impingement of the SICC. The circulation of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) through the Indian Ocean appears to be partly trapped in the upper layer north of the outcrop line and is redirected along this outcrop line to join the eastward flow of the SICC. Shutdown of the ITF in both models strongly decreases the Leeuwin Current transport and breaks the connection between the LC and SICC. In this case, most of the SICC was found to reconnect to the internal gyre circulation in the Indian Ocean. The Indonesian Throughflow, South Indian Ocean Countercurrent and the Leeuwin Current are thus dynamically coupled.


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