scholarly journals Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO 2

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1943) ◽  
pp. 1997-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Watson ◽  
Nicolas Metzl ◽  
Ute Schuster
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Feedbacks ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The North ◽  
Indian Ocean Sector ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Ocean Sector

The oceans are an important sink for anthropogenically produced CO 2 , and on time scales longer than a century they will be the main repository for the CO 2 that humans are emitting. Our knowledge of how ocean uptake varies (regionally and temporally) and the processes that control it is currently observation-limited. Traditionally, and based on sparse observations and models at coarse resolution, ocean uptake has been thought to be relatively invariant. However, in the few places where we have enough observations to define the uptake over periods of many years or decades, it has been found to change substantially at basin scales, responding to indices of climate variability. We illustrate this for three well-studied regions: the equatorial Pacific, the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, and the North Atlantic. A lesson to take from this is that ocean uptake is sensitive to climate (regionally, but presumably also globally). This reinforces the expectation that, as global climate changes in the future owing to human influences, ocean uptake of CO 2 will respond. To evaluate and give early warning of such carbon–climate feedbacks, it is important to track trends in both ocean and land sinks for CO 2 . Recent coordinated observational programmes have shown that, by organization of an observing network, the atmosphere–ocean flux of CO 2 can, in principle, be accurately tracked at seasonal or better resolution, over at least the Northern Hemisphere oceans. This would provide a valuable constraint on both the ocean and (by difference) land vegetation sinks for atmospheric CO 2 .

scholarly journals Changes of weather conditions in Ukraine under climate changes

2017 ◽  
pp. 31-37
Author(s):  
V.M. Khokhlov ◽  
H.O. Borovska ◽  
O.V. Umanska ◽  
M.S. Tenetko
Keyword(s):  
Wavelet Analysis ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The North ◽  
Regional Feature ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation

The paper analyzes spatiotemporal features the indices of hot, cold and precipitation that are related to weather conditions. The temperature in Ukraine tends to be higher, which is the main regional feature of global climate changes. The North Atlantic Oscillation had an influence on the precipitation in Ukraine – weather is rainier during its negative phases. Also, colder night and hotter days were more frequent during negative phases of the NAO. This fact can be explained by enhancing meridional flows in Ukraine. The wavelet analysis also revealed an impact of the NAO on temperature anomalies – positive phases determined increasing monthly minimum temperatures before the 1980s and decreasing ones after 1980s. Also, the wavelet analysis showed that the Nor-th Atlantic Oscillation influenced the precipitation in northern and southern parts of Ukraine in different ways.

scholarly journals The Meridional Shift of the Midlatitude Westerlies over Arid Central Asia during the Past 21 000 Years Based on the TraCE-21ka Simulations

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (17) ◽  
pp. 7455-7478
Author(s):  
Nanxuan Jiang ◽  
Qing Yan ◽  
Zhiqing Xu ◽  
Jian Shi ◽  
Ran Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Last Deglaciation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
External Forcings ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Last Deglaciation ◽  
The North Atlantic

AbstractTo advance our knowledge of the response of midlatitude westerlies to various external forcings, we investigate the meridional shift of midlatitude westerlies over arid central Asia (ACA) during the past 21 000 years, which experienced more varied forcings than the present day based on a set of transient simulations. Our results suggest that the evolution of midlatitude westerlies over ACA and driving factors vary with time and across seasons. In spring, the location of midlatitude westerlies over ACA oscillates largely during the last deglaciation, driven by meltwater fluxes and continental ice sheets, and then shows a long-term equatorward shift during the Holocene controlled by orbital insolation. In summer, orbital insolation dominates the meridional shift of midlatitude westerlies, with poleward and equatorward migration during the last deglaciation and the Holocene, respectively. From a thermodynamic perspective, variations in zonal winds are linked with the meridional temperature gradient based on the thermal wind relationship. From a dynamic perspective, variations in midlatitude westerlies are mainly induced by anomalous sea surface temperatures over the Indian Ocean through the Matsuno–Gill response and over the North Atlantic Ocean by the propagation of Rossby waves, or both, but their relative importance varies across forcings. Additionally, the modeled meridional shift of midlatitude westerlies is broadly consistent with geological evidence, although model–data discrepancies still exist. Overall, our study provides a possible scenario for a meridional shift of midlatitude westerlies over ACA in response to various external forcings during the past 21 000 years and highlights important roles of both the Indian Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean in regulating Asian westerlies, which may shed light on the behavior of westerlies in the future.

scholarly journals The Linear Sensitivity of the North Atlantic Oscillation and Eddy-Driven Jet to SSTs

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (19) ◽  
pp. 6491-6511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh S. Baker ◽  
Tim Woollings ◽  
Chris E. Forest ◽  
Myles R. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Internal Variability ◽  
The North ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and eddy-driven jet contain a forced component arising from sea surface temperature (SST) variations. Due to large amounts of internal variability, it is not trivial to determine where and to what extent SSTs force the NAO and jet. A linear statistical–dynamic method is employed with a large climate ensemble to compute the sensitivities of the winter and summer NAO and jet speed and latitude to the SSTs. Key regions of sensitivity are identified in the Indian and Pacific basins, and the North Atlantic tripole. Using the sensitivity maps and a long observational SST dataset, skillful reconstructions of the NAO and jet time series are made. The ability to skillfully forecast both the winter and summer NAO using only SST anomalies is also demonstrated. The linear approach used here allows precise attribution of model forecast signals to SSTs in particular regions. Skill comes from the Atlantic and Pacific basins on short lead times, while the Indian Ocean SSTs may contribute to the longer-term NAO trend. However, despite the region of high sensitivity in the Indian Ocean, SSTs here do not provide significant skill on interannual time scales, which highlights the limitations of the imposed SST approach. Given the impact of the NAO and jet on Northern Hemisphere weather and climate, these results provide useful information that could be used for improved attribution and forecasting.

Statistical Projection of the North Atlantic Storm Tracks

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1509-1522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kajsa M. Parding ◽  
Rasmus Benestad ◽  
Abdelkader Mezghani ◽  
Helene B. Erlandsen
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Storm Tracks ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
The North Atlantic

AbstractA method for empirical–statistical downscaling was adapted to project seasonal cyclone density over the North Atlantic Ocean. To this aim, the seasonal mean cyclone density was derived from instantaneous values of the 6-h mean sea level pressure (SLP) reanalysis fields. The cyclone density was then combined with seasonal mean reanalysis and global climate model projections of SLP or 500-hPa geopotential height to obtain future projections of the North Atlantic storm tracks. The empirical–statistical approach is computationally efficient because it makes use of seasonally aggregated cyclone statistics and allows the future cyclone density to be estimated from the full ensemble of available CMIP5 models rather than from a smaller subset. However, the projected cyclone density in the future differs considerably depending on the choice of predictor, SLP, or 500-hPa geopotential height. This discrepancy suggests that the relationship between the cyclone density and SLP, 500-hPa geopotential height, or both is nonstationary; that is, that the statistical model depends on the calibration period. A stationarity test based on 6-hourly HadGEM2-ES data indicated that the 500-hPa geopotential height was not a robust predictor of cyclone density.

scholarly journals Oceanic Impact on European Climate Changes during the Quaternary

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Gloria Martin-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
The North ◽  
European Climate ◽  
The North Atlantic

Integrative studies on paleoclimate variations over oceanic and continental regions are scarce. Though it is known that Earth’s climate is strongly affected by sea-air exchanges of heat and moisture, the role of oceans in climate variations over land remains relatively unexplored. With the aim to unveil this influence, the present work studies major climate oscillations in the North Atlantic region and Europe during the Quaternary, focusing on the oceanic mechanisms that were related to them. During this period, the European climate experienced long-term and wide-amplitude glacial-interglacial oscillations. A covariance between the North Atlantic sea surface temperature and climate signals over the continent is especially observed in Southern Europe. The most severe and drastic climate changes occurred in association to deglaciations, as a consequence of major oceanographic reorganizations that affected atmospheric circulation and ocean-atmosphere heat-flow, which led to variation of temperature and precipitation inland. Most deglaciations began when Northern Hemisphere summer insolation was maximal. Increased heating facilitated the rapid ice-sheet collapse and the massive release of fresh water into the Northern Atlantic, which triggered the weakening or even the shutdown of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation. Though the extension of ice-sheets determined the high-latitude European climate, the climate was more influenced by rapid variations of ice volume, deep-water formation rate, and oceanic and atmospheric circulation in middle and subtropical latitudes. In consequence, the coldest stadials in the mid-latitude North Atlantic and Europe since the early Pleistocene coincided with Terminations (glacial/interglacial transitions) and lesser ice-sheet depletions. They were related with decreases in the NADW formation rate that occurred at these times and the subsequent advection of subpolar waters along the western European margin. In Southern Europe, steppe communities substituted temperate forests. Once the freshwater perturbation stopped and the overturning circulation resumed, very rapid and wide-amplitude warming episodes occurred (interstadials). On the continent, raised temperature and precipitations allowed the rapid expansion of moisture-requiring vegetation.

scholarly journals Rapid Holocene climate changes in the North Atlantic: evidence from lake sediments from the Faroe Islands

Boreas ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAMILLA S. ANDRESEN ◽  
SVANTE BJÖRCK ◽  
MATS RUNDGREN ◽  
DANIEL J. CONLEY ◽  
CATHERINE JESSEN
Keyword(s):  
Lake Sediments ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Faroe Islands ◽  
Holocene Climate ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

Rainfall Variability and Trend Analysis of Multiannual Rainfall in Romanian Plain

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeineddine Nouaceur ◽  
Ovidiu Murărescu ◽  
George Murătoreanu
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation

AbstractThe IPCC climate models predict, for the Central Europe, are for climate changes, being seen variability of temperature, with a growing trend of 1-2,5° C (with 1° C for alpine zone – Carpathians and 2-2,5° C for plains). Current observations in the Romanian plain are not consistent, with an existence of a multiannual variability of temperature and precipitations depending on cyclonal and anti-ciclonal activity. The research is based on calculation of reduced centered index, also the graphical chronological method in information processing (MGCTI) of „Bertin Matrix” type, to show current trends of the spatio-temporal variability of precipitation in the context of global climate change. These are in line with the movement of air masses in Europe in general, and implicitly in Romania, with particular regard to the southern region of the country where the Romanian Plain. The variability of short-term global climate is generally associated with coupling phases of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena including El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). While El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects climate variability in the world, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the climate model dominant in the North Atlantic region. The latter cyclic oscillation whose role is still under debate could explain the variability of rainfall in much of the, central Europe area, and support the hypothesis of a return of the rains marking the end of years of drought in Romanian plain. Faced with such great changes that today affect the central Europe region and given the complexity of spatial and temporal dimensions of the climatic signal, a more thorough research of causes and retroactions would allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms behind this new trend.

scholarly journals Tropical Cyclones in the UPSCALE Ensemble of High-Resolution Global Climate Models*

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 574-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm J. Roberts ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
Matthew S. Mizielinski ◽  
Marie-Estelle Demory ◽  
Reinhard Schiemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Model Resolution ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The U.K. on Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) Weather-Resolving Simulations of Climate for Global Environmental Risk (UPSCALE) project, using PRACE resources, constructed and ran an ensemble of atmosphere-only global climate model simulations, using the Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 3 (GA3) configuration. Each simulation is 27 years in length for both the present climate and an end-of-century future climate, at resolutions of N96 (130 km), N216 (60 km), and N512 (25 km), in order to study the impact of model resolution on high-impact climate features such as tropical cyclones. Increased model resolution is found to improve the simulated frequency of explicitly tracked tropical cyclones, and correlations of interannual variability in the North Atlantic and northwestern Pacific lie between 0.6 and 0.75. Improvements in the deficit of genesis in the eastern North Atlantic as resolution increases appear to be related to the representation of African easterly waves and the African easterly jet. However, the intensity of the modeled tropical cyclones as measured by 10-m wind speed remains weak, and there is no indication of convergence over this range of resolutions. In the future climate ensemble, there is a reduction of 50% in the frequency of Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclones, whereas in the Northern Hemisphere there is a reduction in the North Atlantic and a shift in the Pacific with peak intensities becoming more common in the central Pacific. There is also a change in tropical cyclone intensities, with the future climate having fewer weak storms and proportionally more strong storms.

scholarly journals Evidence for Two Distinct Modes of Large-Scale Ocean Circulation Changes over the Last Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Dima ◽  
Gerrit Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Thermohaline Circulation ◽  
Conveyor Belt ◽  
The North ◽  
Symmetric Pattern ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Circulation Changes

Abstract Through its nonlinear dynamics and involvement in past abrupt climate shifts the thermohaline circulation (THC) represents a key element for the understanding of rapid climate changes. The expected THC weakening under global warming is characterized by large uncertainties, and it is therefore of significant importance to identify ocean circulation changes over the last century. By applying various statistical techniques on two global sea surface temperature datasets two THC-related modes are separated. The first one involves relatively slow adjustment of the whole conveyor belt circulation and has an interhemispherically symmetric pattern. The second mode is associated with the relatively fast adjustment of the North Atlantic overturning cell and has the seesaw structure. Based on the separation of these two patterns the authors show that the global conveyor has been weakening since the late 1930s and that the North Atlantic overturning cell suffered an abrupt shift around 1970. The distinction between the two modes provides also a new frame for interpreting past abrupt climate changes.

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