The evolution of three successive hurricanes (Katia, Maria, and Ophelia) is investigated over the river plume area formed by the Amazon and Orinoco river outflows during September of 2011. The study focuses on hurricane impacts on the ocean structure and the ocean feedback influencing hurricane intensification. High-resolution (1/25A degrees x 1/25A degrees horizontal grid) numerical simulations of the circulation in the extended Atlantic Hurricane Region (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Northwest Atlantic Ocean) were used to investigate the upper ocean response during the three hurricane-plume interaction cases. The three hurricanes revealed different evolution and intensification characteristics over an area covered by brackish surface waters. The upper ocean response to the hurricane passages over the plume affected region showed high variability due to the interaction of oceanic and atmospheric processes. The existence of a barrier layer (BL), formed by the offshore spreading of brackish waters, probably facilitated intensification of the first storm (Hurricane Katia) because the river-induced BL enhanced the resistance of the upper ocean to cooling. This effect was missing in the subsequent two hurricanes (Maria and Ophelia) as the eroded BL (due to Katia passage) allowed the upper ocean cooling to be increased. As a consequence, the amount of ocean thermal energy provided to these storms was greatly reduced, which acted to limit intensification. Numerical experiments and analyses, in tandem with observational support, lead to the conclusion that the presence of a river plume-induced BL is a strong factor in the ocean conditions influencing hurricane intensification.
Meinen, C. S.; Garzoli, S. L.; Perez, R. C.; Campos, E.; Piola, A. R.; Chidichimo, M. P.; Dong, S. F.; Sato, O. T.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Ocean Science, 13(1), 175-194.
Description:
The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) at 34.5 degrees S in the South Atlantic carries a significant fraction of the cold deep limb of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), and therefore its variability affects the meridional heat transport...
This study examines the causes of observed sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic between 1982 and 2015. The emphasis is on the boreal winter and spring seasons, when tropical Atlantic SSTs project strongly onto the At...
Kourafalou, V. H.; Androulidakis, Y. S.; Halliwell, G. R.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M. M.; Le Henaff, M.; Atlas, R.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Progress in Oceanography, 148, 1-25.
Description:
A high resolution, free-running model has been developed for the hurricane region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The model is evaluated with a variety of observations to ensure that it adequately represents both the ocean climatology and variability ov...
Trinanes, J. A.; Olascoaga, M. J.; Goni, G. J.; Maximenko, N. A.; Griffin, D. A.; Hafner, J.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Journal of Operational Oceanography, 9(2), 126-138.
Description:
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014. Potential sites of where the plane entered the water are considered within a vast region of the Indian Ocean. We present a methodology to assess the potential crash site based on where airpla...
Volkov, D. L.; Lee, S. K.; Landerer, F. W.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 927-936.
Description:
The persistent energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, inferred from satellite measurements, indicates that the Earth's climate system continues to accumulate excess heat. As only sparse and irregular measurements of ocean heat below 2000m dep...
Leidner, S. M.; Nehrkorn, T.; Henderson, J.; Mountain, M.; Yunck, T.; Hoffman, R. N.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Monthly Weather Review, 145(2), 637-651.
Description:
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultations (RO) over the last 10 years have proved to be a valuable and essentially unbiased data source for operational global numerical weather prediction. However, the existing sampling coverage is...
Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 121(10), 7547-7559.
Description:
The seasonal variability of the Florida Current (FC) transport is often characterized by the presence of an average annual cycle (8% of the variance) of approximate to 3 Sv range peaking in boreal summer. However, the seasonality displayed by the FC ...
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74(2), 333-351.
Description:
The in situ generation of easterly waves (EWs) in the east Pacific (EPAC) is investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The sensitivity of the model to the suppression of EW forcing by locally generated convective disturbanc...
Laurent, A.; Fennel, K.; Cai, W. J.; Huang, W. J.; Barbero, L.; Wanninkhof, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 946-956.
Description:
Nutrient inputs from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River system into the northern Gulf of Mexico promote high phytoplankton production and lead to high respiration rates. Respiration coupled with water column stratification results in seasonal summer h...
Pendleton, L.; Comte, A.; Langdon, C.; Ekstrom, J. A.; Cooley, S. R.; Suatoni, L.; Beck, M. W.; Brander, L. M.; Burke, L.; Cinner, J. E.; Doherty, C.; Edwards, P. E. T.; Gledhill, D.; Jiang, L. Q.; van Hooidonk, R. J.; Teh, L.; Waldbusser, G. G.; Ritter, J.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
PLOS ONE, 11(11), 21.
Description:
Reefs and People at Risk Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature ...
Enochs, I. C.; Manzello, D. P.; Kolodziej, G.; Noonan, S. H. C.; Valentino, L.; Fabricius, K. E.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 283(1842), 8.
Description:
Ocean acidification (OA) impacts the physiology of diverse marine taxa; among them corals that create complex reef framework structures. Biological processes operating on coral reef frameworks remain largely unknown from naturally high-carbon-dioxide...
Heron, S. F.; Maynard, J. A.; van Hooidonk, R.; Eakin, C. M.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 38402.
Description:
Coral reefs across the world's oceans are in the midst of the longest bleaching event on record (from 2014 to at least 2016). As many of the world's reefs are remote, there is limited information on how past thermal conditions have influenced reef co...
van Hooidonk, R.; Maynard, J.; Tamelander, J.; Gove, J.; Ahmadia, G.; Raymundo, L.; Williams, G.; Heron, S. F.; Planes, S.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 39666.
Description:
Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at whic...
Putman, N. F.; Lumpkin, R.; Sacco, A. E.; Mansfield, K. L.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1844), 20161689.
Description:
Predictions of organismal movements in a fluid require knowing the fluid's velocity and potential contributions of the organism's behaviour (e.g. swimming or flying). While theoretical aspects of this work are reasonably well-developed, field-based v...
Balaguru, K.; Foltz, G. R.; Leung, L. R.; Kaplan, J.; Xu, W.; Reul, N.; Chapron, B.;
Published Date:
2020
Source:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(9), E1497-E1511
Description:
Tropical cyclone (TC) rapid intensification (RI) is difficult to predict and poses a formidable threat to coastal populations. A warm upper ocean is well known to favor RI, but the role of ocean salinity is less clear. This study shows a strong inver...
Liang, Yu-Chiao; Lo, Min-Hui; Lan, Chia-Wei; Seo, Hyodae; Ummenhofer, Caroline C.; Yeager, Stephen; Wu, Ren-Jie; Steffen, John D.;
Published Date:
2020
Source:
Nat Commun. 2020; 11: 4390.
Description:
The Amazon river basin receives ~2000 mm of precipitation annually and contributes ~17% of global river freshwater input to the oceans; its hydroclimatic variations can exert profound impacts on the marine ecosystem in the Amazon plume region (APR) a...
Kourafalou, V. H.; Androulidakis, Y. S.; Halliwell, G. R.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M. M.; Le Henaff, M.; Atlas, R.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Progress in Oceanography, 148, 1-25.
Description:
A high resolution, free-running model has been developed for the hurricane region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The model is evaluated with a variety of observations to ensure that it adequately represents both the ocean climatology and variability ov...
Journal of Physical Oceanography, 50(11), 3219-3670
Description:
Preexisting, oceanic barrier layers have been shown to limit turbulent mixing and suppress mixed layer cooling during the forced stage of a tropical cyclone (TC). Furthermore, an understanding of barrier layer evolution during TC passage is mostly un...
Foltz, G. R.; Brandt, P.; Richter, I.; Rodríguez-Fonseca, B.; Hernandez, F.; Dengler, M.; Rodrigues, R. R.; Schmidt, J. O.; Yu, L.; Lefevre, N.; Da Cunha, L. C.; McPhaden, M. J.; Araujo, M.; Karstensen, J.; Hahn, J.; Martín-Rey, M.; Patricola, C. M.; Poli, P.; Zuidema, P.; Hummels, R.; Perez, R. C.; Hatje, V.; Lübbecke, J. F.; Polo, I.; Lumpkin, R.; Bourlès, B.; Asuquo, F. E.; Lehodey, P.; Conchon, A.; Chang, P.; Dandin, P.; Schmid, C.; Sutton, A.; Giordani, H.; Xue, Y.; Illig, S.; Losada, T.; Grodsky, S. A.; Gasparin, F.; Lee, T.; Mohino, E.; Nobre, P.; Wanninkhof, R.; Keenlyside, N.; Garcon, V.; Sánchez-Gómez, E.; Nnamchi, H. C.; Drévillon, M.; Storto, A.; Remy, E.; Lazar, A.; Speich, S.; Goes, M.; Dorrington, T.; Johns, W. E.; Moum, J. N.; Robinson, C.; Perruche, C.; de Souza, R. B.; Gaye, A. T.; López-Parages, J.; Monerie, P.-A.; Castellanos, P.; Benson, N. U.; Hounkonnou, M. N.; Duhá, J. T.; Laxenaire, R.; Reul, N.;
Published Date:
2019
Source:
Frontiers in Marine Science, 6(206).
Description:
The tropical Atlantic is home to multiple coupled climate variations covering a wide range of timescales and impacting societally relevant phenomena such as continental rainfall, Atlantic hurricane activity, oceanic biological productivity, and atmos...
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