Sea level variability in the eastern tropical Pacific as observed by TOPEX and Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean Experiment

1994 ◽  
Vol 99 (C12) ◽  
pp. 24739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. Giese ◽  
James A. Carton ◽  
Lydia J. Holl
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Tropical Atmosphere ◽  
Eastern Tropical Pacific ◽  
Tropical Ocean ◽  
Sea Level Variability

scholarly journals Contribution of buoyancy fluxes to tropical Pacific sea level variability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Wagner ◽  
Markus Scheinert ◽  
Claus W. Böning
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Water Fluxes ◽  
Sea Level Variability ◽  
Steric Sea Level ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
Stress Changes ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract. Regional anomalies of steric sea level are either due to redistribution of heat and freshwater anomalies or due to ocean-atmosphere buoyancy fluxes. Interannual to decadal variability in sea level across the tropical Pacific is mainly due to steric variations driven by wind stress anomalies. The importance of air--sea buoyancy fluxes is less clear. We use a global, eddy permitting ocean model and a series of sensitivity experiments with quasi-climatological momentum and buoyancy fluxes to identify the contribution of buoyancy fluxes for interannual to decadal sea level variability in the tropical Pacific. We find their contribution on interannual timescales to be strongest in the central tropical Pacific at around 10° latitude in both hemispheres and also relevant in the very east of the tropical domain. Buoyancy flux forced anomalies are in phase with variations driven by wind stress changes but their effect on the prevailing anomalies and the importance of heat and fresh water fluxes vary locally. In the eastern tropical basin interannual sea level variability is amplified by anomalous heat fluxes, while the importance of fresh water fluxes is small and neither has any impact on decadal timescales. In the western tropical Pacific the variability on interannual and decadal timescales is dampened by both, heat and freshwater fluxes. The mechanism involves westward propagating Rossby waves that are triggered during ENSO events by anomalous buoyancy fluxes in the central tropical Pacific and counteract the prevailing sea level anomalies once they reach the western part of the basin.

scholarly journals Asymmetry of Interannual Sea Level Variability in the Western Tropical Pacific: Responses to El Niño and La Niña

2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuping Ren ◽  
Yuanlong Li ◽  
Fei Zheng ◽  
Fan Wang ◽  
Jing Duan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Sea Level Variability ◽  
Western Tropical Pacific ◽  
La Nina
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