Ocean Temperature Variability Research Articles

The Spatiotemporal Surface Velocity Variations and Analysis of the Amery Ice Shelf from 2000 to 2022, East Antarctica

The surface velocity of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) is vital to assessing its stability and mass balance. Previous studies have shown that the AIS basin has a stable multi-year average surface velocity. However, spatiotemporal variations in the surface velocity of the AIS and the underlying physical mechanism remain poorly understood. This study combined offset tracking and DInSAR methods to extract the monthly surface velocity of the AIS and obtained the inter-annual surface velocity from the ITS_LIVE product. An uneven spatial distribution in inter-annual variation in the surface velocity was observed between 2000 and 2022, although the magnitude of variation was small at less than 20.5 m/yr. The increase and decrease in surface velocity on the eastern and western-central sides of the AIS, respectively, could be attributed to the change in the thickness of the AIS. There was clear seasonal variation in monthly average surface velocity at the eastern side of the AIS between 2017 and 2021, which could be attributed to variations in the area and thickness of fast-ice and also to variations in ocean temperature. This study suggested that changes in fast-ice and ocean temperature are the main factors driving spatiotemporal variation in the surface velocity of the AIS.

Near-Term Mediterranean Summer Temperature Climate Projections: A Comparison of Constraining Methods

Abstract There are several methods to constrain multimodel projections of future climate. This study assesses the quality of four constraining methods in representing the near-term summer temperature projections of the Mediterranean region. Three are based on phasing in ocean surface temperature variations based on observations or decadal predictions, and the method is based on the measuring performance and independence of the individual simulations. The comparison has been carried out with a new framework inspired by the forecast quality assessment of decadal predictions. The framework led to quality estimates of the constrained projection approaches obtained by producing 20-yr temperature estimates every year from 1970 to 2000 and computing quality metrics against observational references. The evaluation results show some differences between constraining approaches. The improvement or deterioration against quality measures of the full, unconstrained, phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) ensemble shows strong spatial heterogeneity. From the analysis of the selection approaches it is found that the constraints based on sea surface temperature (SST) fields are affected not only by the variability but also by the warming trend. The weighting method generally shows small quality differences with respect to the full CMIP6 ensemble. Despite caveats of the different methods, there is potential to improve the near-term climate projections as some significant quality enhancements were found in some approaches according to the evaluation metrics used. This study suggests a good understanding of the constraining methods, and their forecast quality is required before using them to take informed decisions. Our study opens the door to optimizing these methods for the Mediterranean climate and highlights the need for evaluating the constraints through retrospective assessments against observational references.

A Method for Predicting High-Resolution 3D Variations in Temperature and Salinity Fields Using Multi-Source Ocean Data

High-resolution three-dimensional (3D) variations in ocean temperature and salinity fields are of great significance for ocean environment monitoring. Currently, AI-based 3D temperature and salinity field predictions rely on expensive 3D data, and as the prediction period increases, the stacking of high-resolution 3D data greatly increases the difficulty of model training. This paper transforms the prediction of 3D temperature and salinity into the prediction of sea surface elements and the inversion of subsurface temperature and salinity using sea surface elements, by leveraging the relationship between sea surface factors and subsurface temperature and salinity. This method comprehensively utilizes multi-source ocean data to avoid the issue of data volume caused by stacking high-resolution historical data. Specifically, the model first utilizes 1/4° low-resolution satellite remote sensing data to construct prediction models for sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level anomaly (SLA), and then uses 1/12° high-resolution temperature and salinity data as labels to build an inversion model of subsurface temperature and salinity based on SST and SLA. The prediction model and inversion model are integrated to obtain the final high-resolution 3D temperature and salinity prediction model. Experimental results show that the 20-day prediction results in the two sea areas of the coastal waters of China and the Northwest Pacific show good performance, accurately predicting ocean temperature and salinity in the vast majority of layers, and demonstrate higher resource utilization efficiency.

Characterizing spatio-temporal variations of dimethyl sulfide in the Yellow and East China Sea based on BP neural network

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS), an organic volatile sulfide produced from Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), exerts a significant impact on the global climate change. Utilizing published literature data spanning from 2005 to 2020, a BP neural network (BPNN) model of the surface seawater DMS in the Yellow and East China Sea (YECS) was developed to elucidate the influence of various marine factors on the DMS cycle. Results indicated that the six parameters inputted BPNN model, that include the time (month), latitude and longitude, sea-surface chlorophyll a (Chl-a), sea-surface temperature (SST), and sea-surface salinity (SSS), yielded the optimized simulation results (R2 = 0.71). The optimized estimation of surface seawater DMS in the YECS were proved to be closely aligned with the observed data across all seasons, which demonstrated the model’s robust applicability. DMS concentration in surface seawater were found to be affected by multiple factors such as Chl-a and SST. Comparative analysis of the three environmental parameters revealed that Chl-a exhibited the most significant correlation with surface seawater DMS concentration in the YECS (R2 = 0.20). This underscores the pivotal role of chlorophyll in phytoplankton photosynthesis and DMS production, emphasizing its importance as a non-negligible factor in the study of DMS and its sulfur derivatives. Furthermore, surface seawater DMS concentration in the YECS exhibited positive correlations with Chl-a and SST, while displaying a negative correlation with SSS. The DMS concentration in the YECS show substantial seasonal variations, with the maximum value (5.69 nmol/L) in summer followed in decreasing order by spring (3.96 nmol/L), autumn (3.18 nmol/L), and winter (1.60 nmol/L). In the YECS, there was a gradual decrease of DMS concentration from the nearshore to the offshore, especially with the highest DMS concentration concentrated in the Yangtze River Estuary Basin and the south-central coastal part off the Zhejiang Province. Apart from being largely composed by the release of large amounts of nutrients from anthropogenic activities and changes in ocean temperature, the spatial and temporal variability of DMS may be driven by additional physicochemical parameters.

Decadal Evolution of Ice‐Ocean Interactions at a Large East Greenland Glacier Resolved at Fjord Scale With Downscaled Ocean Models and Observations

AbstractIn recent decades, the Greenland ice sheet has been losing mass through glacier retreat and ice flow acceleration. This mass loss is linked with variations in submarine melt, yet existing ocean models are either coarse global simulations focused on decadal‐scale variability or fine‐scale simulations for process‐based investigations. Here, we unite these scales with a framework to downscale from a global state estimate (15 km) into a regional model (3 km) that resolves circulation on the continental shelf. We further downscale into a fjord‐scale model (500 m) that resolves circulation inside fjords and quantifies melt. We demonstrate this approach in Scoresby Sund, East Greenland, and find that interannual variations in submarine melt at Daugaard‐Jensen glacier induced by ocean temperature variability are consistent with the decadal changes in glacier ice dynamics. This study provides a framework by which coarse‐resolution models can be refined to quantify glacier submarine melt for future ice sheet projections.

Intergenerational effects of ocean temperature variation: Early life benefits are short-lived in threespine stickleback.

Current climate change models predict an increase in temperature variability and extreme events such as heatwaves, and organisms need to cope with consequent changes to environmental variation. Non-genetic inheritance mechanisms can enable parental generations to prime their offspring's abilities to acclimate to environmental change-but they may also be deleterious. When parents are exposed to predictable environments, intergenerational plasticity can lead to better offspring trait performance in matching environments. Alternatively, parents exposed to variable or unpredictable environments may use plastic bet-hedging strategies to adjust the phenotypic variance among offspring. Here, we used a model species, the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), to test whether putatively adaptive intergenerational effects can occur in response to shifts in environmental variation as well as to shifts in environmental mean, and whether parents employ plastic bet-hedging strategies in response to increasing environmental variation. We used a full-factorial, split-clutch experiment with parents and offspring exposed to three temperature regimes: constant, natural variation, and increased variation. We show that within-generation exposure to increased temperature variation reduces growth of offspring, but having parents that were exposed to natural temperature variation during gametogenesis may offset some early-life negative growth effects. However, these mitigating intergenerational effects do not appear to persist later in life. We found no indication that stickleback mothers plastically altered offspring phenotypic variance (egg size or clutch size) in response to temperature variation. However, lower inter-individual variance of juvenile fish morphology in offspring of increased variation parents may imply the presence of conservative bet-hedging strategies in natural populations. Overall, in our experiment, parental exposure to temperature variation had limited effects on offspring fitness-related traits. Natural levels of environmental variation promoted a potentially adaptive intergenerational response in early life development, but under more challenging conditions associated with increased environmental variation, the effect was lost.

Rapid and synchronous response of outlet glaciers to ocean warming on the Barents Sea coast, Novaya Zemlya

Abstract The Arctic is a hotspot for climate warming, making it crucial to quantify the sea level rise contribution from its ice masses. Novaya Zemlya's ice caps are the largest glacier complex in Europe and are a major contributor to contemporary sea level rise. Here we show that Novaya Zemlya outlet glaciers on the Barents Sea coast respond rapidly and consistently to oceanic forcing at annual timescales, likely due to their exposure to Atlantic Water variability. Glaciers on the Kara Sea show more variable response, likely reflecting their reduced exposure to Atlantic Water. Data demonstrate that the pause in glacier retreat previously observed on Novaya Zemlya between 2013 and 2015 has not persisted and that these changes correspond to ocean temperature variability on the Barents Sea coast. We document a marked shift to warmer air and ocean temperatures, and reduced sea ice concentrations from 2005 onwards. Although we identify ocean warming as the primary trigger for glacier retreat, we suggest that multi-year thinning, driven by the shift towards warmer air temperatures since 2005, pre-conditioned Novaya Zemlya's glaciers to retreat. Despite commonality in the timing of outlet glacier retreat, the magnitude is highly variable during rapid retreat phases, which we attribute to glacier-specific factors.

On the Contribution of Transient Diabatic Processes to Ocean Heat Transport and Temperature Variability

Abstract Time-varying processes contribute to ocean heat transport and are important to understand for accurate climate modeling. While past studies have quantified time-varying contributions to advective transport, less attention has been given to diabatic processes such as surface forcing and mixing. Using a global eddy-permitting ocean model we quantify the contribution of time-variable processes to meridional and diathermal (warm to cold) heat transport at different time scales using a temporal eddy-mean decomposition performed in the temperature–latitude plane. Time-varying contributions to meridional heat transport occur predominantly at mesoscale eddy-dominated midlatitudes and in the tropics, associated with the seasonal cycle and tropical instability waves. The seasonal cycle is a dominant driver of surface flux– and mixing-driven diathermal heat transports. Nonseasonal (and nondiurnal) processes contribute up to about 10% of the total. We show that transient contributions to diathermal heat transport can be interpreted as sources of Eulerian temperature variance. We thus extend recent work on the drivers of temperature variability by evaluating the role of mixing. Mixing dampens seasonal and diurnal temperature variability, except near the equator where it can be a source of seasonal variability. At mesoscale time scales mixing drives variability within and near the base of the boundary layer, the mechanisms of which are explored using a column model. We suggest that climate models that do not resolve the mesoscale may be missing the rectified heat transport associated with high-frequency diabatic processes, in addition to the adiabatic eddy fluxes that are commonly parameterized. Significance Statement Ocean heat transport plays a key role in determining how the climate responds to changes in forcing. This transport is influenced by a range of processes that vary with time. Previous research has quantified time-varying sources of lateral heat transport, such as mesoscale eddies and overturning circulation cells. However, time-varying “diabatic processes,” such as surface forcing and unresolved turbulent mixing, have received less attention. Here, we quantify these effects using a global ocean model. We find a dominant role for the seasonal cycle in driving diabatic heat transport, but processes on shorter time scales also contribute. Our results suggest that temporal variations in turbulent mixing are an important contributor to heat transport but may not be resolved in coarse-resolution climate models.

Enhancing impacts of mesoscale eddies on Southern Ocean temperature variability and extremes

As a major sink of anthropogenic heat and carbon, the Southern Ocean experienced pronounced warming with increasing extreme temperature events over the past decades. Mesoscale eddies that strongly influence the uptake, redistribution, and storage of heat in the ocean are expected to play important roles in these changes, yet observational evidence remains limited. Here, we employ a comprehensive analysis of over 500,000 historical hydrographic profile measurements combined with satellite-based eddy observations to show enhanced thermal eddy imprints in the Southern Ocean. Our observations reveal that anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies are responsible for nearly half of the subsurface high (low)-temperature extremes detected, although only 10% of the profiles are located in eddy interiors. Over the past decade (2006 to 2019), both mean and extreme temperature anomalies within eddies in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current increased significantly, promoting the rise in subsurface ocean temperature variability. This enhanced role of eddies is likely a result of enhanced eddy pumping due to the increase in eddy intensity and ocean stratification caused by ocean warming. Our analysis underscores the crucial role of eddies in amplifying ocean temperature variability and extremes, with their effects expected to be even more pronounced as global warming persists.

Fiber‐Optic Observations of Internal Waves and Tides

AbstractAlthough typically used to measure dynamic strain from seismic and acoustic waves, Rayleigh‐based distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is also sensitive to temperature, offering longer range and higher sensitivity to small temperature perturbations than conventional Raman‐based distributed temperature sensing. Here, we demonstrate that ocean‐bottom DAS can be employed to study internal wave and tide dynamics in the bottom boundary layer, a region of enhanced ocean mixing but scarce observations. First, we show temperature transients up to about 4 K from a power cable in the Strait of Gibraltar south of Spain, associated with passing trains of internal solitary waves in water depth <200 m. Second, we show the propagation of thermal fronts associated with the nonlinear internal tide on the near‐critical slope of the island of Gran Canaria, off the coast of West Africa, with perturbations up to about 2 K at 1‐km depth and 0.2 K at 2.5‐km depth. With spatial averaging, we also recover a signal proportional to the barotropic tidal pressure, including the lunar fortnightly variation. In addition to applications in observational physical oceanography, our results suggest that contemporary chirped‐pulse DAS possesses sufficient long‐period sensitivity for seafloor geodesy and tsunami monitoring if ocean temperature variations can be separated.

Antarctic iceberg melt rate variability and sensitivity to ocean thermal forcing

AbstractChanges in iceberg calving fluxes and oceanographic conditions around Antarctica have likely influenced the spatial and temporal distribution of iceberg fresh water fluxes to the surrounding ocean basins. However, Antarctic iceberg melt rate estimates have been limited to very large icebergs in the open ocean. Here we use a remote-sensing approach to estimate iceberg melt rates from 2011 to 2022 for 15 study sites around Antarctica. Melt rates generally increase with iceberg draft and follow large-scale variations in ocean temperature: maximum melt rates for the western peninsula, western ice sheet, eastern ice sheet and eastern peninsula are ~50, ~40, ~5 and ~5 m a−1, respectively. Iceberg melt sensitivity to thermal forcing varies widely, with a best-estimate increase in melting of ~24 m a−1°C−1and range from near-zero to ~100 m a−1°C−1. Variations in water shear likely contribute to the apparent spread in thermal forcing sensitivity across sites. Although the sensitivity of iceberg melt rates to water shear prevents the use of melt rates as a proxy to infer coastal water mass temperature variability, additional coastal iceberg melt observations will likely improve models of Southern Ocean fresh water fluxes and have potential for subglacial discharge plume mapping.

Climate Evolution Through the Onset and Intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

AbstractThe Pliocene Epoch (∼5.3–2.6 million years ago, Ma) was characterized by a warmer than present climate with smaller Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, and offers an example of a climate system in long‐term equilibrium with current or predicted near‐future atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2). A long‐term trend of ice‐sheet expansion led to more pronounced glacial (cold) stages by the end of the Pliocene (∼2.6 Ma), known as the “intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation” (iNHG). We assessed the spatial and temporal variability of ocean temperatures and ice‐volume indicators through the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (from 3.3 to 2.4 Ma) to determine the character of this climate transition. We identified asynchronous shifts in long‐term means and the pacing and amplitude of shorter‐term climate variability, between regions and between climate proxies. Early changes in Antarctic glaciation and Southern Hemisphere ocean properties occurred even during the mid‐Piacenzian warm period (∼3.264–3.025 Ma) which has been used as an analog for future warming. Increased climate variability subsequently developed alongside signatures of larger Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (iNHG). Yet, some regions of the ocean felt no impact of iNHG, particularly in lower latitudes. Our analysis has demonstrated the complex, non‐uniform and globally asynchronous nature of climate changes associated with the iNHG. Shifting ocean gateways and ocean circulation changes may have pre‐conditioned the later evolution of ice sheets with falling atmospheric pCO2. Further development of high‐resolution, multi‐proxy reconstructions of climate is required so that the full potential of the rich and detailed geological records can be realized.

The Effect of Past Saturation Changes on Noble Gas Reconstructions of Mean Ocean Temperature

AbstractThe ocean's immense ability to store and release heat on centennial to millennial time scales modulates the impacts of climate perturbations. To gain a better understanding of past variations in mean ocean temperature (MOT), a noble gas‐based proxy measured from ancient air in ice cores has been developed. Here we assess non‐temperature effects that may influence the atmospheric noble gas ratios reconstructed from polar ice and how they impact the temperature signal with an intermediate complexity Earth system model. We find that changes in wind speed, sea‐ice extent, and ocean circulation have partially compensating effects on mean‐ocean noble gas saturation, leading to a slight reduction of noble gas undersaturation at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Taking these effects and ice core measurements into account, our model suggests a revised MOT difference between the LGM and pre‐industrial of −2.1 ± 0.7°C that is also in improved agreement with other independent temperature reconstructions.

Widespread southern elephant seal occupation of the Victoria land coast implies a warmer-than-present Ross Sea in the mid-to-late Holocene

Prediction of future ice-sheet behavior in Antarctica and its contribution to sea-level rise depends on accurate understanding of ice-sheet response to a warm climate. Examination of how the ice sheet reacted to past warm episodes affords a means of assessing its tolerances to climate change. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), in particular, is thought to be highly susceptible to variations in ocean temperature at its grounding lines. Yet, detailed records of past ocean temperatures close to the continent are rare. Here, we present a record of past relative ocean-temperature and sea-ice change derived from the presence and then eventual abandonment of southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) occupation sites along the Victoria Land Coast (VLC) of the western Ross Embayment. Our results suggest greatly reduced landfast and likely pack ice, as well as potentially the incursion of relatively warm modified Circum-Polar Deep Water from ∼7100 to 500 yr BP, with the greatest reduction in ice/warmest water temperatures at ∼5200 and ∼2300-1800 yr BP. These changes in ocean conditions would have had a strong influence on VLC marine-terminating glaciers through variations in buttressing sea ice and melt rates on the underside of floating ice. Independent data suggest that these glaciers had restricted extent in the mid-Holocene, consistent with our inference of warm ocean temperatures and low sea ice. The glaciers subsequently expanded within the last millennium, coincident with the disappearance of southern elephant seals from the coast and the inferred return to icy conditions. Our relative sea-ice and ocean-temperature reconstruction also is consistent with the hypothesized retreat of the WAIS inland of its present position in the mid to late Holocene, although the distance between our sites and the current WAIS grounding lines is large (600–1000 km), and thus any linkage is speculative at present. Finally, limited pre-Holocene southern elephant seal data support the existence of warm ocean temperatures immediately prior to and perhaps even during build-up to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice position. If this could be confirmed, it would suggest that factors other than ocean temperatures, such as lowered sea level, might have been critical in causing ice-sheet advance in the Ross Embayment at the LGM.

Ocean temperature variation across the Cambrian Botoman–Toyonian extinction event

Ocean temperature variation across the Cambrian Botoman–Toyonian extinction event

An increase in marine heatwaves without significant changes in surface ocean temperature variability

Marine heatwaves (MHWs)—extremely warm, persistent sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies causing substantial ecological and economic consequences—have increased worldwide in recent decades. Concurrent increases in global temperatures suggest that climate change impacted MHW occurrences, beyond random changes arising from natural internal variability. Moreover, the long-term SST warming trend was not constant but instead had more rapid warming in recent decades. Here we show that this nonlinear trend can—on its own—appear to increase SST variance and hence MHW frequency. Using a Linear Inverse Model to separate climate change contributions to SST means and internal variability, both in observations and CMIP6 historical simulations, we find that most MHW increases resulted from regional mean climate trends that alone increased the probability of SSTs exceeding a MHW threshold. Our results suggest the need to carefully attribute global warming-induced changes in climate extremes, which may not always reflect underlying changes in variability.

Investigation of the planar midlatitude ionospheric trend under different levels of solar activity

A better understanding of the ionosphere through accurate mathematical models is no doubt a crucial element. This study focuses on the challenging problem of building a model representing the complex structure of the midlatitude ionosphere. Previous studies have shown that a regional planar model is suitable in representing the total electron content (TEC) trend in the midlatitude ionosphere in both hemispheres. In this study, the planar trend model for 12 non-overlapping northern hemisphere regions in three groups of geographically near 4 regions is further investigated under different levels of solar activity; low, moderate and high. To that end, the coefficients of the model are estimated in the least squares sense using total electron content values from global ionospheric maps (GIMs) for the years 2009, 2012 and 2014. Subsequently, these coefficients are used to reconstruct estimated TEC maps which are then compared with actual GIM-TEC by investigating their difference in normalized L2 norm squared sense. The regional planar trend model provides a particularly successful representation in the years 2012 and 2014 for which the solar activity level is the dominant factor determining the TEC trend. Under low solar activity conditions of 2009, other factors such as ocean currents, temperature variations and meteorological phenomena are suspected to have a considerable effect in some regions depending on their geographic location and on seasonal trends in those regions. As an example, studies show that under the influence of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Siberian High (SH), a significant cooling trend between 2004 and 2018 in autumn is observed in Eurasia, which, in conjunction with the low solar activity levels, may be related to the deviations from the actual GIM-TEC in 2009 in these regions. As solar radiation increases, however, such bottom-side forcings are masked in 2012 and 2014 and these deviations are no longer observed.

Change of Global Ocean Temperature and Decadal Variability under 1.5 °C Warming in FOAM

The rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration is regarded as the dominant reason for observed warming since the mid-20th century. Based on the Paris Agreement target, this research designs three conceptual pathways to achieve the warming target of 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial level by using the Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model. The three different scenarios contain one equilibrium experiment (equilibrium, EQ) and two transient experiments (never-exceed pathway, NE; overshoot pathway, OS). Then, we choose a ten year average that achieves 1.5 °C warming to calculate the climatology of the warming situation. Since OS achieves 1.5 °C twice, we obtain four warming situations to explore the response of ocean temperature. In 2100, the global ocean temperature increases over the global region, except the surface of the Southern Ocean. The difference in heat content mainly depends on the cumulative force of CO2 concentration. It is worth pointing out that during the increase in warming, the ocean surface temperature and heat content start to respond in different hemispheres. The weakening of decadal variability in the North Pacific and North Atlantic is robust in all three scenarios. However, there is a tremendous growth in the low-pass ocean surface temperature standard deviation in the Southern Ocean in EQ, which is different to NE and OS, and causes the increase in global mean total standard deviation. The shortening of decadal variability can only be seen from the EQ power spectrum, while NE and OS have similar power spectra with pre-industrial runs. It suggests that all previous studies that use equilibrium experiments data may have overestimated the shortening of decadal variability under global warming.

Rain Impacts on the Surface Atmosphere and Upper Ocean in the Central Equatorial Pacific

Abstract The impacts of rainy days (>24 mm) on the physics of the surface atmosphere and upper ocean are characterized in the central Pacific Ocean (140°–170°W) on the equator, where deep-cycle turbulence substantially influences the sea surface temperature and air–sea heat flux on diurnal and longer time scales. Here, rainfall is relatively weak on average (1–3 mm day−1), and enough rain to substantially alter the diurnal cycle of upper-ocean buoyancy only occurs on the order of once in 100 days, albeit more frequently to the west and during El Niño and boreal winter. Rainy days are associated with multiple systematic changes in the surface atmosphere, but the freshwater and the reduction in daily downwelling shortwave radiation (by ∼50 W m−2) are codominant and drive systematic changes in the ocean during and the day after the rainy day. These two drivers explain ensemble average reductions in the upper-ocean salinity (−0.12 psu at 1 m) and temperature (−0.16°C at 1 m) and increases in buoyancy (+0.0005 m s−2 at 1 m), which are typically confined to a shallow fresh/warm mixing layer on the order of 10 m thick in the daytime. At deeper depths, the intrinsic ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity variability make it challenging to extract an ensemble average response to rainy days in observations, but some examples from observations and large-eddy simulations suggest that rainfall can significantly reduce the vertical extent and heat flux in the deep-cycle turbulence, although the bulk energetics and buoyancy flux of the turbulence are not necessarily modified by rain. Significance Statement Rain significantly impacts social and ecological systems in many ways that are readily apparent in populated areas, but the impacts of rain over the ocean are not as well known. In this paper, sustained in situ observations over decades and highly resolved numerical simulations of ocean turbulence during a few rain events are used to characterize the impacts of rainy days on the surface–atmosphere and upper-ocean physics in the center of action of El Niño in the central equatorial Pacific. These results contribute to broader efforts to observe, understand, and accurately model the surface atmosphere, the upper ocean, and air–sea interaction in the central Pacific and thereby improve long-range weather and climate observations and predictions.

Benefits and detrimental effects of ocean warming for Tasmanian salmon aquaculture

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is the main aquaculture species in Tasmania, Australia. This species is known to be sensitive to ocean temperature and has its own optimal temperature range for exceptional growth. As a hotspot of ocean warming, adaptation planning may be necessary for Tasmanian salmon aquaculture industries in coming years. In this study, we used high-resolution sea surface temperature (SST) satellite observations to investigate ocean temperature variability and trends in the southeastern Tasmania over the past 28 years, and their impacts on growth suitability for sea-farmed Atlantic salmon using a metric called optimal days. We found that long-term ocean warming in the region was evident but showed both positive and negative effects on optimal days. Winter warming would make salmon farms more suitable for salmon growth, while summer warming would make it too warm to grow optimally, which could lead to increased fish disease and even death. This seasonal difference also explained the year-to-year variability in the number of optimal days. Furthermore, spatial distributions of optimal day anomalies indicated that some farm regions were affected more than the others. Northern regions are becoming unsuitable for salmon aquaculture, while southern regions are still optimal for salmon growth in the next few decades. These findings demonstrate the complexity of consequences of global warming for salmon aquaculture industries, and can help stakeholders to develop a blue print for strategizing future farm development and climate change adaptation plans.