North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water Research Articles

North Atlantic subtropical mode water formation controlled by Gulf Stream fronts.

The North Atlantic Ocean hosts the largest volume of global subtropical mode waters (STMWs) in the world, which serve as heat, carbon and oxygen silos in the ocean interior. STMWs are formed in the Gulf Stream region where thermal fronts are pervasive and result in feedback with the atmosphere. However, their roles in STMW formation have been overlooked. Using eddy-resolving global climate simulations, we find that suppressing local frontal-scale ocean-to-atmosphere (FOA) feedback leads to STMW formation being reduced almost by half. This is because FOA feedback enlarges STMW outcropping, attributable to the mixed layer deepening associated with cumulative excessive latent heat loss due to higher wind speeds and greater air-sea humidity contrast driven by the Gulf Stream fronts. Such enhanced heat loss overshadows the stronger restratification induced by vertical eddies and turbulent heat transport, making STMW colder and heavier. With more realistic representation of FOA feedback, the eddy-present/rich coupled global climate models reproduce the observed STMWs much better than the eddy-free ones. Such improvement in STMW production cannot be achieved, even with the oceanic resolution solely refined but without coupling to the overlying atmosphere in oceanic general circulation models. Our findings highlight the need to resolve FOA feedback to ameliorate the common severe underestimation of STMW and associated heat and carbon uptakes in earth system models.

Do Submesoscales Affect the Large-Scale Structure of the Upper Ocean?

Abstract Submesoscale baroclinic instabilities have been shown to restratify the surface mixed layer and to seasonally energize submesoscale turbulence in the upper ocean. But do these instabilities also affect the large-scale circulation and stratification of the upper thermocline? This question is addressed for the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water region with a series of numerical simulations at varying horizontal grid spacings (16, 8, 4, and 2 km). These simulations are realistically forced and integrated long enough for the thermocline to adjust to the presence or absence of submesoscales. Linear stability analysis indicates that a 2-km grid spacing is sufficient to resolve the most unstable mode of the wintertime mixed layer instability. As the resolution is increased, spectral slopes of horizontal kinetic energy flatten and vertical velocities increase in magnitude, consistent with previous regional and short-time simulations. The equilibrium stratification of the thermocline changes drastically as the grid spacing is refined from 16 to 8 km and mesoscale eddies are fully resolved. The thermocline stratification remains largely unchanged, however, between the 8-, 4-, and 2-km runs. This robustness is argued to arise from a mesoscale constraint on the buoyancy variance budget. Once mesoscale processes are resolved, the rate of mesoscale variance production is largely fixed. This constrains the variance destruction by submesoscale vertical buoyancy fluxes, which thus remain invariant across resolutions. The bulk impact of mixed layer instabilities on upper-ocean stratification in the Subtropical Mode Water region through an enhanced vertical buoyancy flux is therefore captured at 8-km grid spacing, even though the instabilities are severely underresolved.

Publisher Correction: A recent decline in North Atlantic subtropical mode water formation

Publisher Correction: A recent decline in North Atlantic subtropical mode water formation

Tracking water masses using passive-tracer transport in NEMO v3.4 with NEMOTAM: application to North Atlantic Deep Water and North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water

Abstract. Water mass ventilation provides an important link between the atmosphere and the global ocean circulation. In this study, we present a newly developed, probabilistic tool for offline water mass tracking. In particular, NEMOTAM, the tangent-linear and adjoint counterpart to the NEMO ocean general circulation model, is modified to allow passive-tracer transport. By terminating dynamic feedbacks in NEMOTAM, tagged water can be tracked forward and backward in time as a passive dye, producing a probability distribution of pathways and origins, respectively. To represent surface (re-)ventilation, we optionally decrease the tracer concentration in the surface layer and track this concentration removal to produce a ventilation record. Two test cases are detailed, examining the creation and fate of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water (NASMW) and North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) in a 2∘ configuration of NEMO run with repeated annual forcing for up to 400 years. Model NASMW is shown to have an expected age of 4.5 years and is predominantly eradicated by internal processes. A bed of more persistent NASMW is detected below the mixed layer with an expected age of 8.7 years. It is shown that while model NADW has two distinct outcrops (in the Arctic and North Atlantic), its formation primarily takes place in the subpolar Labrador and Irminger seas. Its expected age is 112 years.

A recent decline in North Atlantic subtropical mode water formation

As a manifestation of mixing dynamics in the upper ocean, interannual and decadal variability of subtropical mode water (STMW) properties in the North Atlantic Ocean provides a valuable insight into ocean–atmosphere interaction in a changing climate. Here, we use hydrographic data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study and Hydrostation S sites near Bermuda, as well as various ocean reanalysis products, to evaluate the modern variability of STMW properties. Our study finds an 86–93% loss of STMW thickness at these sites between 2010 and 2018 and a comparable loss throughout the western subtropical gyre, culminating in the weakest STMW pentad on record. We correlate this decline with a reduction in the annual outcropping volume and northward excursions of the formation region, suggesting a gyre-wide signal of weakening STMW generation. The outcropping volume of STMW is anti-correlated with surface ocean heat content, foreshadowing future STMW loss in the face of continued warming.

Interannual Variability of Upper Ocean Water Masses as Inferred From Argo Array

AbstractInterannual variability of Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is intimately linked to ocean water mass changes. Water mass characteristics are imprinted at the ocean surface and are modulated by climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales. In this study, we investigate the water mass change and their variability using an isopycnal decomposition of the OHC. For that purpose, we address the thickness and temperature changes of these water masses using both individual temperature‐salinity profiles and optimal interpolated products from Argo data. Isopycnal decomposition allows us to characterize the water mass interannual variability and decadal trends of volume and OHC. During the last decade (2006–2015), much of interannual and decadal warming is associated with Southern Hemisphere Subtropical Mode Water and Subantarctic Mode Water, particularly in the South Pacific Eastern Subtropical Mode Water, the Southeastern Indian Subantarctic Mode Water, and the Southern Pacific Subantarctic Mode Water. In contrast, Antarctic Intermediate Water in the Southern Hemisphere and North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water in the Northern Hemisphere have cooled. This OHC interannual variability is mainly explained by volume (or mass) changes of water masses related to the isopycnal heaving. The forcing mechanisms and interior dynamics of water masses are discussed in the context of the wind stress change and ocean adjustment occurring at interannual time scale.

Effects of the Submesoscale on the Potential Vorticity Budget of Ocean Mode Waters

AbstractNonconservative processes change the potential vorticity (PV) of the upper ocean and, later, through the subduction of surface waters into the interior, affect the general ocean circulation. Here we focus on how boundary layer turbulence, in the presence of submesoscale horizontal buoyancy gradients, generates a source of potential vorticity at the ocean surface through a balance known as the turbulent thermal wind. This source of PV injection at the submesoscale can be of similar magnitude to PV fluxes from the wind and surface buoyancy fluxes, and hence can lead to a net injection of PV onto outcropped isopycnals even during periods of surface buoyancy loss. The significance of these dynamics is illustrated using a high-resolution realistic model of the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water (Eighteen Degree Water), where it is demonstrated that injection of PV at the submesoscale reduces the rate of mode water PV removal by a factor of ~2 and shortens the annual period of mode water formation by ~3 weeks, relative to air–sea fluxes alone. Submesoscale processes thus provide a direct link between small-scale boundary layer turbulence and the gyre-scale circulation, through their effect on mode water formation, with implications for understanding the variability and biogeochemical properties of ocean mode waters globally.

The Surface-Forced Overturning of the North Atlantic: Estimates from Modern Era Atmospheric Reanalysis Datasets

Abstract Estimates of the recent mean and time varying water mass transformation rates associated with North Atlantic surface-forced overturning are presented. The estimates are derived from heat and freshwater surface fluxes and sea surface temperature fields from six atmospheric reanalyses—the Japanese 25-yr Reanalysis (JRA), the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis (NCEP1), the NCEP–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis (NCEP2), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-I), the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), and the Modern-Era Reanalysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)—together with sea surface salinity fields from two globally gridded datasets (World Ocean Atlas and Met Office EN3 datasets). The resulting 12 estimates of the 1979–2007 mean surface-forced streamfunction all depict a subpolar cell, with maxima north of 45°N, near σ = 27.5 kg m−3, and a subtropical cell between 20° and 40°N, near σ = 26.1 kg m−3. The mean magnitude of the subpolar cell varies between 12 and 18 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), consistent with estimates of the overturning circulation from subsurface observations. Analysis of the thermal and haline components of the surface density fluxes indicates that large differences in the inferred low-latitude circulation are largely a result of the biases in reanalysis net heat flux fields, which range in the global mean from −13 to 19 W m−2. The different estimates of temporal variability in the subpolar cell are well correlated with each other. This suggests that the uncertainty associated with the choice of reanalysis product does not critically limit the ability of the method to infer the variability in the subpolar overturning. In contrast, the different estimates of subtropical variability are poorly correlated with each other, and only a subset of them captures a significant fraction of the variability in independently estimated North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water volume.

The Fate of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water in the FLAME Model

Abstract North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water, also known as Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), has the potential to store heat anomalies through its seasonal cycle: the water mass is in contact with the atmosphere in winter, isolated from the surface for the rest of the year, and reexposed the following winter. Though there has been recent progress in understanding EDW formation processes, an understanding of the fate of EDW following formation remains nascent. Here, particles are launched within the EDW of an eddy-resolving model, and their fate is tracked as they move away from the formation region. Particles in EDW have an average residence time of ~10 months, they follow the large-scale circulation around the subtropical gyre, and stratification is the dominant criteria governing the exit of particles from EDW. After sinking into the layers beneath EDW, particles are eventually exported to the subpolar gyre. The spreading of particles is consistent with the large-scale potential vorticity field, and there are signs of a possible eddy-driven mean flow in the southern portion of the EDW domain. The authors also show that property anomalies along particle trajectories have an average integral time scale of ~3 months for particles that are in EDW and ~2 months for particles out of EDW. Finally, it is shown that the EDW turnover time for the model in an Eulerian frame (~3 yr) is consistent with the turnover time computed from the Lagrangian particles provided that the effects of exchange between EDW and the surrounding waters are included.

Mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Bight and the Gulf Stream Recirculation region: Vertical structure

Sea level anomalies from altimeters are combined with decade-long potential temperature and salinity profiles from Argo floats to investigate the vertical structure of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB) and the Gulf Stream Recirculation region. Eddy detection and eddy tracking algorithms are applied to the satellite observations, and hydrography profiles from floats that surfaced inside eddies are used to construct three-dimensional composites of cyclones and anticyclones. Eddies are characterized by large temperature and salinity anomalies at 500–1000 m depth and near the surface, and by small anomalies at 200–400 m below the surface at the depth of the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water. Anomalies associated with anticyclones are generally larger and found deeper in the water column compared to those due to the presence of cyclones. Geostrophic velocities around eddies generally exceed their translation speed in the top 1000 m of the water column. As such, these eddies can trap water in their interior as they propagate westward. Combining the volume of water inside eddies above their trapping depths with the number of eddies that propagate into the SAB each year, it is estimated that cyclones and anticyclones transport 3.5 ± 0.9 Sv and 4.1 ± 1.7 Sv onshore toward the Gulf Stream, respectively. The total volume transport of 7.6 ± 2.2 Sv represents an important fraction of previous estimates of the onshore transport in the Gulf Stream Recirculation gyre. Since eddies are characterized by large temperature and salinity anomalies, they also contribute significantly to the onshore transport of heat and salt.

How Well Do Climate Models Reproduce North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water?

Abstract Formation and the subsequent evolution of the subtropical mode water (STMW) involve various dynamic and thermodynamic processes. Proper representation of mode water variability and contributions from various processes in climate models is important in order to predict future climate change under changing forcings. The North Atlantic STMW, often referred to as Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), in three coupled models, both with data assimilation [GFDL coupled data assimilation (GFDL CDA)] and without data assimilation [GFDL Climate Model, version 2.1 (GFDL CM2.1), and NCAR Community Climate System Model, version 3 (CCSM3)], is analyzed to evaluate how well EDW processes are simulated in those models and to examine whether data assimilation alters the model response to forcing. In comparison with estimates from observations, the data-assimilating model gives a better representation of the formation rate, the spatial distribution of EDW, and its thickness, with the largest EDW variability along the Gulf Stream (GS) path. The EDW formation rate in GFDL CM2.1 is very weak because of weak heat loss from the ocean in the model. Unlike the observed dominant southward movement of the EDW, the EDW in GFDL CM2.1 and CCSM3 moves eastward after formation in the excessively wide GS in the models. However, the GFDL CDA does not capture the observed thermal response of the overlying atmosphere to the ocean. Observations show a robust anticorrelation between the upper-ocean heat content and air–sea heat flux, with upper-ocean heat content leading air–sea heat flux by a few months. This anticorrelation is well captured by GFDL CM2.1 and CCSM3 but not by GFDL CDA. Only GFDL CM2.1 captures the observed anticorrelation between the upper-ocean heat content and EDW volume. This suggests that, although data assimilation corrects the readily observed variables, it degrades the model thermodynamic response to forcing.

The contributions of atmosphere and ocean to North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water volume anomalies

Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) in the western North Atlantic Ocean, or Eighteen Degree Water (EDW), as it is commonly known, is formed near the Gulf Stream in the wintertime, is dissipated by mixing and is removed by subduction. The ability of EDW to store and discharge large quantities of heat over periods of several years contributes to the memory of the climate system. To complement the 2-year field and modeling program of the CLIvar MOde Water Dynamics Experiment (CLIMODE) with a perspective of interannual-to-decadal variability (1985–2007), we used a simple box model to hindcast observed EDW volume anomalies in two regions: one in which EDW is formed and an adjacent region of subducted EDW. Estimates of the relative contributions of heat flux anomalies, vertical mixing from Ekman advection, mixing, and circulation are examined using proxy variables derived from winds, sea surface temperature, hydrographic data and altimetric sea level. The importance of each process is evaluated by its contribution to observed EDW volume anomalies in two regions. The study produced some robust conclusions: (1) anomalies of formation by surface heat fluxes are clearly reflected in EDW volume anomalies with some contributions by Ekman advection; (2) of the newly formed EDW about 65% is lost by mixing and about 35% is transferred to the subducted region; (3) mixing losses are well parameterized by the meandering of the nearby GS and (4) transfer and losses from the subducted region can be parameterized by the geostrophic surface flow.

Surface vertical PV fluxes and subtropical mode water formation in an eddy-resolving numerical simulation

Subtropical mode waters are characterized by low potential vorticity (PV) and so the mechanisms by which PV is extracted from the ocean by air–sea interaction are of great relevance to our understanding of how mode waters are formed. This study analyzes those mechanisms by comparing the magnitude and spatial patterns of surface PV fluxes of diabatic and frictional origin in a high resolution numerical simulation of the North Atlantic. The model resolves mesoscale eddies and exhibits realism in the volume and regional distribution of subtropical mode water, both in the annual-mean and seasonal cycle.It is found that the diabatic and mechanic fluxes of PV through the sea surface are of similar amplitude locally, but their spatial structures are very different. The diabatic PV flux has a large scale pattern that reflects that of air–sea heat fluxes directed from the ocean to the atmosphere along and to the south of the separated Gulf Stream. In contrast the mechanical PV flux, because of its dependence on horizontal surface density gradients, exhibits much smaller scales but embedded within a coherent large scale pattern. When mapped over the North Atlantic subtropical mode water (EDW) outcropping region, the diabatic PV flux pattern is found to be directed out of the ocean everywhere, whereas the mechanical PV fluxes exhibits small-scale patterns of both sign. The amplitude of the diabatic PV fluxes is found to be at least one order of magnitude larger than the mechanical PV fluxes demonstrating the overwhelming importance of diabatic processes in creating mode waters.Finally, we note that the large scale climatological patterns and magnitudes of both diabatic and mechanical PV flux mapped over the EDW outcropping region, are very similar to patterns obtained from coarse-grained ocean state estimates that do not resolve the eddy field.

An estimate of the climatology and variability of Eighteen Degree Water potential vorticity forcing

The input of potential vorticity (PV) over the oceans is estimated from observations to produce climatological maps and study interannual forcing variability. The estimate is obtained using a potential vorticity like variable employing potential temperature in place of potential density, and thus we refer to it as pseudo-potential vorticity (PPV). This choice allows us to examine the effects of storms and high frequency events as sources of PPV. We postulate the characteristics of the PPV fluxes reflect the properties of PV flux. Particular attention is paid to the North Atlantic subtropical mode water potential temperature range from 17 to 19°C. The sea surface PPV flux is estimated through buoyancy and wind stress contributions and using a climatological mixed layer depth product. Wind forcing of PPV is strong in frontal regions and in the Antarctic Circumpolar current. When averaged following outcrops, however, buoyant forcing emerges as dominant. A major observational subtropical mode water program named CLIMODE was conducted during the winters from 2004/5 to 2006/7. Summer months during these years are very much in agreement with climatology; the winter months are slightly more variable. Attempts are made to relate PPV forcing variability to the NAO, a major mode of North Atlantic atmospheric variability. Correlation between the flux and the NAO is significant, and increases in amplitude if analysis is restricted to the winter time frame. There is also a weaker correlation between the NAO and the net EDW flux the following year. Considerable variability of the flux is unaccounted for, however, and we speculate that this is a signal of intrinsic ocean variability.

The effect of advection on the nutrient reservoir in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre

Though critically important in sustaining the ocean's biological pump, the cycling of nutrients in the subtropical gyres is poorly understood. The supply of nutrients to the sunlit surface layer of the ocean has traditionally been attributed solely to vertical processes. However, horizontal advection may also be important in establishing the availability of nutrients. Here we show that the production and advection of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water introduces spatial and temporal variability in the subsurface nutrient reservoir beneath the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. As the mode water is formed, its nutrients are depleted by biological utilization. When the depleted water mass is exported to the gyre, it injects a wedge of low-nutrient water into the upper layers of the ocean. Contrary to intuition, cold winters that promote deep convective mixing and vigorous mode water formation may diminish downstream primary productivity by altering the subsurface delivery of nutrients.

North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water: A history of ocean‐atmosphere interaction 1961–2000

Water masses that ventilate intermediate ocean depth, such as the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water (NASTMW), play important roles in various aspects of climate, but their basic properties and space‐time variability need to be better quantified. Herein we examine the mean annual cycle and long‐term variability of NASTMW for the 40‐year period 1961–2000. Integrated NASTMW properties such as water mass volume, temperature, and heat content show a consistent annual cycle superimposed over a much larger interannual‐to‐decadal cycle that is strongly correlated to the North Atlantic Oscillation index. The 40‐year record clearly shows the ocean's ability to integrate atmospheric forcing over several years and to exhibit an interannual memory of wintertime forcing by the atmosphere.

A Characterization of the North Atlantic STMW Layer Climatology UsingWorld Ocean Atlas 1994Data

The North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) layer was identified based on its temperature, large thickness, and small temperature gradient. Comparisons between this method and identifying the STMW layer using a density-based (i.e., potential vorticity) criteria indicate that this method successfully identifies the STMW layer as the remnant of the previous winter’s convective mixing. By using this temperature-based characterization of the STMW layer, this method was able to develop a climatology using the large number of expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) deployed between 1968 and 1988, and contained in the World Ocean Atlas 1994 historical hydrographic database. From this climatology, the STMW layer that is the remnant of the previous winter’s convective activity is typically found between 175 and 450 m, has an average temperature near 18 8C, and has a mean temperature gradient of 0.58C (100 m)21. Comparisons of the STMW temperature, thickness, and temperature gradient characteristics in this climatology agree with other observations of the North Atlantic STMW layer.

Continental runoff and effects on the North Atlantic Ocean subtropical mode water

Interannual salinity variations in North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) are well known although the cause is less well understood. Attempts to model local salinity variation with local evaporation and precipitation have not been successful and some authors invoke advection of low salinity water as the cause. Examination of the STMW and North American river runoff data suggests that runoff may partly explain the salinity variations. It is known that low salinity water resulting from Mississippi River outflow is transported well past Cape Hatteras. Spearman Rank Correlation analysis and spectra and cross-spectra Fourier correlation analysis both show that river flow is significantly inversely correlated with STMW salinity. This result suggests that North American river flow may have an influence on the salinity of STMW.