Far-Field Impacts of a Super Typhoon on Upper Ocean Phytoplankton Dynamics

Super typhoon Rammasun (2014) traveled across the South China Sea on July 16–18. Its far-field impacts on phytoplankton dynamics in the upper ocean were documented by a Biogeochemical-Argo (BGC-Argo) float located 200 km to the left of its track. Both surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) and particulate backscattering coefficient (bbp) were observed to increase substantially within two distinct stages. The initial increase occurred during the passage of the typhoon, and the subsequent increase happened 5 days after the typhoon. In contrast, depth-integrated Chla and bbp in the upper 150 m underwent negligible changes throughout the entire period. The key lies in the fact that surface phytoplankton increases in the far-field region resulted from the physically driven vertical redistribution of particles, rather than from biological alternations. The first increase was attributed to the typhoon-induced strong turbulence which deepened the surface mixed layer, and thus entrained subsurface particles to the surface; the second was due to the post-typhoon adiabatic quasi-geostrophic adjustment of the upper ocean that gradually raised the isopycnals (and thus subsurface particles). These results challenge the prevailing wisdom on typhoon impacts, and thus shed new lights on the nature of the upper ocean responses to typhoons from both physical and biological perspectives.

A Z-grid Based Dynamic Core for Global Numerical Prediction Model of Chinese Meteorological Agency

<p>In order to provide multiple choices of dynamic cores for the next generation global numerical prediction system at Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA), a Z-grid based dynamic core is under development. Among other important features of a Z-grid scheme, better dispersion relation, natural geostrophic adjustment and conservation attract numerical modeler’s interests. In this presentation, we will share the progress of such a development at CMA along with other dynamic cores, improving its accuracy on a sphere, efficient solvers and software design and implementation. We also developed some standard unit test cases for software reliability, which are also available and convenient for other dynamic cores. Some numerical experiment results will be presented as well.</p>

Unprecedented coastal upwelling in the southern coast of the Korean peninsula during summer 2013

<p>Unprecedented coastal upwelling in the southern coast of the Korean peninsula was reported in the summer of 2013. The offshore water temperature was 2℃ higher than that of climate (10-year mean) due to the hot summer in 2013. However, the water temperature at the coastal region was 2℃ lower. The upwelling continued for a month despite of weakening of upwelling-favorable wind. In this study, observational data and numerical model results were analyzed to investigate what caused the upwelling and sustained it for a long time. The upwelling was induced by upwelling-favorable wind in July. Coastal upwelling resulted in dynamic uplift of bottom cold water due to geostrophic adjustment. The dynamic uplift decreased sea level in the coastal region. The sea level difference between coastal and offshore regions resulted in an intensified cross-shore pressure gradient which induced geostrophic current accompanied by geostrophic adjustment along the coast. This positive feedback between dynamic uplift and geostrophic adjustment sustained the coastal upwelling for a long time regardless of upwelling-favorable wind.</p>

Asymmetry of jet streams formed under nonlinear geostrophic adjustment in shallow water

The process of geostrophic adjustment in a rotating layer of shallow water is considered. For initial distributions of the fluid depth in the form of a step and a localized rectangle, this process results in the formation of an isolated jet stream and a system of two counter jet streams, respectively. In this paper, the features of these flows structure, related to the nonlinearity of the adjustment process, are studied. The main feature for an isolated jet stream is the horizontal asymmetry of its velocity profile. For a system of two opposing flows, a mirror asymmetry is characteristic, which is caused by the dependence on the sign of the amplitude of the initial disturbance of depth. The velocity of flows with a negative sign (depression) always exceeds the velocity with a positive sign (elevation).