The role of the oceans in climate (original) (raw)
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A global survey of ocean-atmosphere interaction and climate variability
Geophysical Monograph Series, 2000
The interaction of the ocean and atmosphere plays an important role in shaping the climate and its variations. This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge of air-sea interaction and climate variations over the global ocean. The largest source of climate variability in the instrumental record is El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which extends its reach globally through the ability of the atmosphere to bridge ocean basins. The growth of ENSO owes its existence to a positive ocean-atmosphere feedback mechanism (originally envisioned by J. Bjerknes) that involves the interaction of ocean dynamics, atmospheric convection, and winds in the equatorial Pacific. The Bjerknes feedback and the resultant equatorial zonal mode of climate variability are a common feature to all three tropical oceans despite differences in dimension, geometry and mean climate. In addition to this zonal mode, the tropics also support a meridional mode, whose growth is due to a thermodynamic feedback mechanism involving the interaction of the cross-equatorial gradient of properties such as sea surface temperature and displacements of the seasonal intertropical convergence zone. This meridional mode is observed in the tropical Atlantic, with some evidence of its existence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In the extratropics, in contrast, the sources of climate variability are more distributed. Much of climate variability may be explained by the presence of white noise due to synoptic weather disturbances whose impact on climate at longer timescales is due to the integrating effect of the ocean's ability to store and release heat. Still, there is some evidence of a more active role for the mid-latitude ocean in climate variability, especially near major ocean currents/fronts. Finally, various atmospheric and oceanic bridges that link different ocean basins are discussed, along with their implications for paleoclimate changes and the current global warming.
Effects of the World’s Oceans on Global Climate Change
American Journal of Climate Change, 2013
The role of the World Ocean in Global Climate Change is considered from two points of view: 1) heat energy accumulation and distribution in the ocean and its discharge into the atmosphere as purely physical processes; 2) participation of living matter in the ocean in these processes. The oceanic organic matter, especially plankton and different organic compounds, absorbs solar energy and changes water transparency, controlling thickness of layers and amount of the energy accumulated. Having ability to react not only to fluctuations of solar heat energy supply, but also to extra weak fluctuations of electromagnetic and magnetic fields of terrestrial and extraterrestrial origin, phytoplankton and other organic matter should be considered as active forcing of global climate and ocean ecosystem fluctuations observed on different scales. Several mechanisms of solar activity effects on global climate-ocean ecosystem interactions are discussed.
Descriptive Physical Oceanography, 2011
Preface vii 1 Basics of climate 2 The oceans: A Descriptive overview 3 A Brief introduction to Dynamics 4 The ocean circulation 5 The ocean's overall role in climate 6 climate Variability from Weeks to years 7 Global Warming and the ocean Notes Further Reading Glossary References Index
Ocean Biogeochemistry and Global Change
2000
3 4 • Foreword 5 • Science Highlights 7 • Why Study the Oceans? IN THIS ISSUE OF the IGBP Science Series, we report the achievements and scientifi c highlights of The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). JGOFS began its active research phase in 1988 and has grown to include the work of many 100's of scientists and students in over 20 seagoing nations on the seven continents and all the principal oceans of our planet.
Role of Ocean in Global Warming
Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan, 2007
Based upon the results obtained from coupled ocean-atmosphere models of various complexities, this review explores the role of ocean in global warming. It shows that ocean can play a major role in delaying global warming and shaping its geographical distribution. It is very encouraging that many features of simulated change of the climate system have begun to agree with observation. However, it has been difficult to confirm the apparent agreement because the density and frequency of the observation are insufficient in many oceanic region of the world, in particular, in the Circumpolar Ocean of the Southern Hemisphere. It is therefore essential to intensify our effort to monitor not only at the surface but also in the subsurface layers of oceans.
Oceanography, 2004
Paleoceanographic records extracted from a global array of sediment cores obtained by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) can be used to elucidate differences between oceanographic conditions during the early Pliocene warm period (~4.5 to 3.0 million years ago [Ma]) and the late Pliocene and Pleistocene cool ice age period (3.0 Ma to present). Oxygen isotope gradients derived by laboratory analysis of calcareous microfossil shells from low-latitude sites are used to reconstruct tropical surface hydrographic (i.e., temperature and/or salinity) gradients and to examine the role of tropical oceans on global climate over the last 5 million years, including the factors that caused the warm to cold climate transition, commonly referred to as the onset of signifi cant Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG). We fi nd that a small west-east temperature gradient across the Pacifi c Ocean, similar to El Niño conditions, accompanied and perhaps played a critical role in determining early Pliocene global warmth; steeper temperature gradients, more typical of the modern ocean, were established during the cool, ice-age climatic state by ~1.5 Ma. What caused the end of El Niño-like conditions and the onset of the ice ages? We show that changes in the oxygen isotope gradient between the Indian and Pacifi c Oceans occurred between ~3.0 and 1.5 Ma, indicating that gradual tectonic infl uences on fl ow through the Indonesian seaways may have caused changes in tropical sea surface temperature patterns that forced NHG. The marked increase in the salinity gradient between the Pacifi c and Atlantic Oceans, possibly related to restriction of fl ow through the Panamanian seaway, occurred ~4.2 Ma, too early to be responsible for the onset of NHG. Other sources of