Atlantic multidecadal oscillation AMO spatial pattern. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation index computed as the linearly detrended North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies 1856-2009. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is a mode of variability occurring in the North Atlantic Ocean and which has its principal expression in the sea surface temperature (SST) field. Definition[edit] The Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) was identified by Schlesinger and Ramankutty in 1994.[2] The AMO signal is usually defined from the patterns of SST variability in the North Atlantic once any linear trend has been removed. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation according to the methodology proposed by van Oldenborgh et al. Several methods have been proposed to remove the global trend and ENSO influence over the North Atlantic SST. Ting et al. however argue that the forced SST pattern is not spatially uniform; they separated the forced and internally generated variability using signal to noise maximizing EOF analysis.[1]
Change and Sea Level Rise Melting of Glaciers and Ice Sheets One of the most pronounced effects of climate change has been melting of masses of ice around the world. Glaciers and ice sheets are large, slow-moving assemblages of ice that cover about 10% of the world’s land area and exist on every continent except Australia. They are the world’s largest reservoir of fresh water, holding approximately 75% (1). Over the past century, most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica have lost mass. One of the best-documented examples of glacial retreat has been on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. Image from global-greenhouse-warming.com When researching glacial melting, scientists must consider not only how much ice is being lost, but also how quickly. Image from UNEP In Antarctica, recent estimates show a sharp contrast between what is occurring in the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets. Impacts The melting back of the glaciers and ice sheets has two major impacts. Sea Level Rise
El Niño–Southern Oscillation "El Nina" redirects here. It is not to be confused with La Niña. The 1997–98 El Niño observed by TOPEX/Poseidon. The white areas off the Tropical Western coasts of northern South and all Central America as well as along the Central-eastern equatorial and Southeastern Pacific Ocean indicate the pool of warm water.[1] El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (commonly called ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (between approximately the International Date Line and 120°W), including off the Pacific coast of South America. El Niño Southern Oscillation refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures, as measured by sea surface temperature, SST, of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing, particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean, are the most affected. Definition[edit] Effects of ENSO warm phase (El Niño)[edit]
Sea Levels Rising Fast on U.S. East Coast Charles Q. Choi (Also see "New York, Boston 'Directly in Path' of Sea Level Rise." ) Sea levels worldwide are expected to rise as global warming melts ice and causes water to expand. Now it seems scientists have pinpointed just such a variance. Analyzing tide-level data from much of North America, U.S. Global sea level rise averaged about 0.6 to 1 millimeter annually over the same period. "If you talk with residents of this hot spot area in their 70s or 80s who've lived there all their lives, they'll tell you water is coming higher now in winter storms than it ever did before," said study co-author Peter Howd , an oceanographer contracted with the USGS. "We're now finally getting to the point where we can measure their observations with our highfalutin scientific instruments." (Sea sea level rise pictures .) For residents of New York and cities up and down the eastern seaboard, those numbers should become a lot more than ink on paper. But it's not just cities that are expected to suffer.
Sea surface temperature This graph shows how the average surface temperature of the world's oceans has changed since 1880. This graph uses the 1971 to 2000 average as a baseline for depicting change. Choosing a different baseline period would not change the shape of the data over time. The shaded band shows the range of uncertainty in the data, based on the number of measurements collected and the precision of the methods used. Sea surface temperature increased over the 20th century and continues to rise. This is a daily, global Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data set produced on December 20th, 2013 at 1-km (also known as ultra-high resolution) by the JPL ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) group Weekly average sea surface temperature for the World Ocean during the first week of February 2011, during a period of La Niña. Sea surface temperature and flows. Sea surface temperature (SST) is the water temperature close to the ocean's surface. Measurement[edit] Thermometers[edit] Weather satellites[edit] See also[edit]
Scientists warn US east coast over accelerated sea level rise | Environment A stormy Atlantic ocean hits the coast of Buxton, North Carolina. Photographer: Ted Richardson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Sea level rise is accelerating three to four times faster along the densely populated east coast of the US than other US coasts, scientists have discovered. The zone, dubbed a "hotspot" by the researchers, means the ocean from Boston to New York to North Carolina is set to experience a rise up a third greater than that seen globally. Asbury Sallenger, at the US geological survey at St Petersburg, Florida, who led the new study, said: "That makes storm surges that much higher and the reach of the waves that crash onto the coast that much higher. The hotspot had been predicted by computer modelling, but Sallenger said: "Our paper is the first to focus on using real data to show [the acceleration] is happening now and that we can detect it now." The impacts of the rising seas are potentially devastating, said the scientists.
Solubility pump Air-sea exchange of CO2 In oceanic biogeochemistry, the solubility pump is a physico-chemical process that transports carbon (as dissolved inorganic carbon) from the ocean's surface to its interior. Overview[edit] The solubility pump is driven by the coincidence of two processes in the ocean : The solubility of carbon dioxide is a strong inverse function of seawater temperature (i.e. solubility is greater in cooler water)The thermohaline circulation is driven by the formation of deep water at high latitudes where seawater is usually cooler and denser Since deep water (that is, seawater in the ocean's interior) is formed under the same surface conditions that promote carbon dioxide solubility, it contains a higher concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon than one might otherwise expect. One consequence of this is that when deep water upwells in warmer, equatorial latitudes, it strongly outgasses carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because of the reduced solubility of the gas. CO2 (aq) + H2O
Continental shelf pump In oceanic biogeochemistry, the continental shelf pump is proposed to operate in the shallow waters of the continental shelves, acting as a mechanism to transport carbon (as either dissolved or particulate material) from surface waters to the interior of the adjacent deep ocean.[1] Overview[edit] Originally formulated by Tsunogai et al. (1999),[1] the pump is believed to occur where the solubility and biological pumps interact with a local hydrography that feeds dense water from the shelf floor into sub-surface (at least subthermocline) waters in the neighbouring deep ocean. Tsunogai et al.' Significance[edit] Based on their measurements of the CO2 flux over the East China Sea (35 g C m−2 y−1), Tsunogai et al. (1999)[1] estimated that the continental shelf pump could be responsible for an air-to-sea flux of approximately 1 Gt C y−1 over the world's shelf areas. References[edit] Rippeth TP, Scourse JD, Uehara, K (2008). ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Tsunogai, S.; Watanabe, S.; Sato, T. (1999).
Biological pump Air-sea exchange of CO2 The biological pump, in its simplest form, is the ocean’s biologically driven sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep sea.[1] It is the part of the oceanic carbon cycle responsible for the cycling of organic matter formed by phytoplankton during photosynthesis (soft-tissue pump), as well as the cycling of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) formed by certain plankton and mollusks as a protective coating (carbonate pump). Overview[edit] The biological pump can be divided into three distinct phases,[2] the first of which is the production of fixed carbon by planktonic phototrophs in the euphotic (Sunlit) surface region of the ocean. Once this carbon is fixed into soft or hard tissue, the organisms either stay in the euphotic zone to be recycled as part of the regenerative nutrient cycle or once they die, continue to the second phase of the biological pump and begin to sink to the ocean floor. Primary Production[edit] CO2 + H2O + light → CH2O + O2 See also[edit]