scholarly journals Effect of moisture exchange in the northern Atlantic on european Russia moistening and annual Volga runoff

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-332
Author(s):  
V. N. Malinin ◽  
S. M. Gordeeva

The interaction between hydrological cycle components in the ocean–atmosphere–land system was considered. Calculations were made with the use of various reanalysis archives, and regularities in the interannual variability of evaporation and precipitation in the North Atlantic and their effect on the zonal transport of water vapor onto the European continent were considered. Statistical models of the annual average total moisture flow at the meridional section 5° E as a function of evaporation in the North Atlantic were constructed. The contribution of the zonal transport of water vapor at the meridian 5° E to the variance of the total precipitation over cold and warm seasons in the Volga basin was determined. Models with a small number of parameters were constructed for forecasting the annual runoff of the Volga as a function of precipitation by methods of multiple regression and decision trees.

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 2135-2151 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Marzin ◽  
N. Kallel ◽  
M. Kageyama ◽  
J.-C. Duplessy ◽  
P. Braconnot

Abstract. Several paleoclimate records such as from Chinese loess, speleothems or upwelling indicators in marine sediments present large variations of the Asian monsoon system during the last glaciation. Here, we present a new record from the northern Andaman Sea (core MD77-176) which shows the variations of the hydrological cycle of the Bay of Bengal. The high-resolution record of surface water δ18O dominantly reflects salinity changes and displays large millennial-scale oscillations over the period 40 000 to 11 000 yr BP. Their timing and sequence suggests that events of high (resp. low) salinity in the Bay of Bengal, i.e. weak (resp. strong) Indian monsoon, correspond to cold (resp. warm) events in the North Atlantic and Arctic, as documented by the Greenland ice core record. We use the IPSL_CM4 Atmosphere-Ocean coupled General Circulation Model to study the processes that could explain the teleconnection between the Indian monsoon and the North Atlantic climate. We first analyse a numerical experiment in which such a rapid event in the North Atlantic is obtained under glacial conditions by increasing the freshwater flux in the North Atlantic, which results in a reduction of the intensity of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. This freshwater hosing results in a weakening of the Indian monsoon rainfall and circulation. The changes in the continental runoff and local hydrological cycle are responsible for an increase in salinity in the Bay of Bengal. This therefore compares favourably with the new sea water δ18O record presented here and the hypothesis of synchronous cold North Atlantic and weak Indian monsoon events. Additional sensitivity experiments are produced with the LMDZ atmospheric model to analyse the teleconnection mechanisms between the North Atlantic and the Indian monsoon. The changes over the tropical Atlantic are shown to be essential in triggering perturbations of the subtropical jet over Africa and Eurasia, that in turn affect the intensity of the Indian monsoon. These relationships are also found to be valid in additional coupled model simulations in which the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is forced to resume.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 971-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Shadwick ◽  
T. Papakyriakou ◽  
A. E. F. Prowe ◽  
D. Leong ◽  
S. A. Moore ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Arctic Ocean is expected to be disproportionately sensitive to climatic changes, and is thought to be an area where such changes might be detected. The Arctic hydrological cycle is influenced by: runoff and precipitation, sea ice formation/melting, and the inflow of saline waters from Bering and Fram Straits and the Barents Sea Shelf. Pacific water is recognizable as intermediate salinity water, with high concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), flowing from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic via the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We present DIC data from an east-west section through the Archipelago, as part of the Canadian International Polar Year initiatives. The fractions of Pacific and Arctic Ocean waters leaving the Archipelago and entering Baffin Bay, and subsequently the North Atlantic, are computed. The eastward transport of carbon from the Pacific, via the Arctic, to the North Atlantic is estimated. Altered mixing ratios of Pacific and freshwater in the Arctic Ocean have been recorded in recent decades. Any climatically driven alterations in the composition of waters leaving the Arctic Archipelago may have implications for anthropogenic CO2 uptake, and hence ocean acidification, in the subpolar and temperate North Atlantic.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 1902-1912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefina Moraes Arraut ◽  
Prakki Satyamurty

Abstract December–March climatologies of precipitation and vertically integrated water vapor transport were analyzed and compared to find the main paths by which moisture is fed to high-rainfall regions in the Southern Hemisphere in this season. The southern tropics (20°S–0°) exhibit high rainfall and receive ample moisture from the northern trades, except in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. This interhemispheric flow is particularly important for Amazonian rainfall, establishing the North Atlantic as the main source of moisture for the forest during its main rainy season. In the subtropics the rainfall distribution is very heterogeneous. The meridional average of precipitation between 35° and 25°S is well modulated by the meridional water vapor transport through the 25°S latitude circle, being greater where this transport is from the north and smaller where it is from the south. In South America, to the east of the Andes, the moisture that fuels precipitation between 20° and 30°S comes from both the tropical South and North Atlantic Oceans whereas between 30° and 40°S it comes mostly from the North Atlantic after passing over the Amazonian rain forest. The meridional transport (across 25°S) curve exhibits a double peak over South America and the adjacent Atlantic, which is closely reproduced in the mean rainfall curve. This corresponds to two local maxima in the two-dimensional field of meridional transport: the moisture corridor from Amazonia into the continental subtropics and the moisture flow coming from the southern tropical Atlantic into the subtropical portion of the South Atlantic convergence zone. These two narrow pathways of intense moisture flow could be suitably called “aerial rivers.” Their longitudinal positions are well defined. The yearly deviations from climatology for moisture flow and rainfall correlate well (0.75) for the continental peak but not for the oceanic peak (0.23). The structure of two maxima is produced by the effect of transients in the time scale of days.


2012 ◽  
Vol 140 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda S. Peng ◽  
Bing Fu ◽  
Tim Li ◽  
Duane E. Stevens

This study investigates the characteristic differences of tropical disturbances that eventually develop into tropical cyclones (TCs) versus those that did not, using global daily analysis fields of the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) from the years 2003 to 2008. Time filtering is applied to the data to extract tropical waves with different frequencies. Waves with a 3–8-day period represent the synoptic-scale disturbances that are representatives as precursors of TCs, and waves with periods greater than 20 days represent the large-scale background environmental flow. Composites are made for the developing and nondeveloping synoptic-scale disturbances in a Lagrangian frame following the disturbances. Similarities and differences between them are analyzed to understand the dynamics and thermodynamics of TC genesis. Part I of this study focuses on events in the North Atlantic, while Part II focuses on the western North Pacific. A box difference index (BDI), accounting for both the mean and variability of the individual sample, is introduced to subjectively and quantitatively identify controlling parameters measuring the differences between developing and nondeveloping disturbances. Larger amplitude of the BDI implies a greater possibility to differentiate the difference between two groups. Based on their BDI values, the following parameters are identified as the best predictors for cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic, in the order of importance: 1) water vapor content within 925 and 400 hPa, 2) rain rate, 3) sea surface temperature (SST), 4) 700-hPa maximum relative vorticity, 5) 1000–600-hPa vertical shear, 6) translational speed, and 7) vertically averaged horizontal shear. This list identifies thermodynamic variables as more important controlling parameters than dynamic variables for TC genesis in the North Atlantic. When the east and west (separated by 40°W) Atlantic are examined separately, the 925–400-hPa water vapor content remains as the most important parameter for both regions. The SST and maximum vorticity at 700 hPa have higher importance in the east Atlantic, while SST becomes less important and the vertically averaged horizontal shear and horizontal divergence become more important in the west Atlantic.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Lohmann ◽  
M. Butzin ◽  
A. Micheels ◽  
T. Bickert ◽  
V. Mosbrugger

Abstract. A weak and shallow thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean is related to an open Central American gateway and exchange with fresh Pacific waters. We estimate the effect of vegetation on the ocean general circulation using the atmospheric circulation model simulations for the Late Miocene climate. Caused by an increase in net evaporation in the Miocene North Atlantic, the North Atlantic water becomes more saline which enhances the overturning circulation and thus the northward heat transport. This effect reveals a potentially important feedback between the ocean circulation, the hydrological cycle and the land surface cover for Cenozoic climate evolution.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. B. Rae ◽  
Wally Broecker

Abstract. In this contribution we explore constraints on the fractions of deep water present in Indian and Pacific Oceans which originated in the northern Atlantic and in the Southern Ocean. Based on PO4* we show that if ventilated Antarctic shelf waters characterize the Southern contribution, then the proportions are close to 50–50. If instead a Southern Ocean bottom water value is used, the Southern contribution is increased to 75 %. While this larger estimate may characterize the volume of water entering the Indo-Pacific from the Southern Ocean, it contains a significant portion of entrained northern water. We also note that ventilation may be highly tracer dependent: for instance Southern Ocean waters may contribute only 35 % of the deep radiocarbon budget, even if their volumetric contribution is 75 %. In our estimation, the most promising approaches involve using CFC-11 to constrain the amount of deep water formed in the Southern Ocean.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella W. Stokke ◽  
Morgan T. Jones ◽  
Lars Riber ◽  
Haflidi Haflidason ◽  
Ivar Midtkandal ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ~ 55.9 Ma) was a period of rapid and sustained global warming associated with significant carbon emissions. It coincided with the North Atlantic opening and emplacement of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP), suggesting a possible causal relationship. Only a very limited number of PETM studies exist from the North Sea, despite its ideal position for tracking the impact of both changing climate and the NAIP explosive and effusive activity. Here we present sedimentological, mineralogical, and geochemical proxy data from Denmark in the eastern North Sea, exploring the environmental response to the PETM. An increase in the chemical index of alteration and a kaolinite content up to 50 % of the clay fraction indicate an influx of terrestrial input shortly after the PETM onset and during the recovery, likely due to an intensified hydrological cycle. The volcanically derived minerals zeolite and smectite comprise up to 36 % and 90 % of the bulk and clay mineralogy respectively, highlighting the NAIPs importance as a sediment source for the North Sea and in increasing the rate of silicate weathering during the PETM. XRF element core scans also reveal possible hitherto unknown NAIP ash deposition both prior to and during the PETM. Geochemical proxies show that an anoxic environment persisted during the PETM body, possibly reaching euxinic conditions in the upper half with high concentrations of Mo (> 30 ppm), S (~ 4 wt %), and pyrite (~ 7 % of bulk), and low Th/U (


2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 572-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Galarneau ◽  
Ron McTaggart-Cowan ◽  
Lance F. Bosart ◽  
Christopher A. Davis

Abstract Tropical cyclone (TC) development near upper-level potential vorticity (PV) streamers in the North Atlantic is studied from synoptic climatology, composite, and case study perspectives. Midlatitude anticyclonic wave breaking is instrumental in driving PV streamers into subtropical and tropical latitudes, in particular near the time-mean midocean trough identified previously as the tropical upper-tropospheric trough. Twelve TCs developed within one Rossby radius of PV streamers in the North Atlantic from June through November 2004–08. This study uses composite analysis in the disturbance-relative framework to compare the structural and thermodynamic evolution for developing and nondeveloping cases. The results show that incipient tropical disturbances are embedded in an environment characterized by 850–200-hPa westerly vertical wind shear and mid- and upper-level quasigeostrophic ascent associated with the PV streamer, with minor differences between developing and nondeveloping cases. The key difference in synoptic-scale flow between developing and nondeveloping cases is the strength of the anticyclone north of the incipient tropical disturbance. The developing cases are marked by a stronger near-surface pressure gradient and attendant easterly flow north of the vortex, which drives enhanced surface latent heat fluxes and westward (upshear) water vapor transport. This evolution in water vapor facilitates an upshear propagation of convection, and the diabatically influenced divergent outflow erodes the PV streamer aloft by negative advection of PV by the divergent wind. This result suggests that the PV streamer plays a secondary role in TC development, with the structure and intensity of the synoptic-scale anticyclone north of the incipient vortex playing a primary role.


2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (8) ◽  
pp. 2850-2868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Sodemann ◽  
Andreas Stohl

Abstract During December 2006 many cyclones traveled across the North Atlantic, causing temperature and precipitation in Norway to be well above average. Large excursions of high vertically integrated water vapor, often referred to as atmospheric rivers, reached from the subtropics to high latitudes, inducing precipitation over western Scandinavia. The sources and transport of atmospheric water vapor in the North Atlantic storm track during that month are examined by means of a mesoscale model fitted with water vapor tracers. Decomposition of the modeled total water vapor field into numerical water vapor tracers tagged by evaporation latitude shows that when an atmospheric river was present, a higher fraction of water vapor from remote, southerly source regions caused more intense precipitation. The tracer transport analysis revealed that the atmospheric rivers were composed of a sequence of meridional excursions of water vapor, in close correspondence with the upper-level flow configuration. In cyclone cores, fast turnover of water vapor by evaporation and condensation were identified, leading to a rapid assimilation of water from the underlying ocean surface. In the regions of long-range transport, water vapor tracers from the southern midlatitudes and subtropics dominated over local contributions. By advection of water vapor along their trailing cold fronts cyclones were reinforcing the atmospheric rivers. At the same time the warm conveyor belt circulation was feeding off the atmospheric rivers by large-scale ascent and precipitation. Pronounced atmospheric rivers could persist in the domain throughout more than one cyclone's life cycle. These findings emphasize the interrelation between midlatitude cyclones and atmospheric rivers but also their distinction from the warm conveyor belt airstream.


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