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 transport in any individual year may have very distinct characteristics. In this study, the analysis focuses on seasonal changes (73-525 day frequency band) in the FC transport that are associated with a variable annual phase, which is defined as the transient seasonal component (FCt, 27% of the variance). It is shown that the FCt is largely modulated by westward propagating sea height anomaly (SHA) signals that are formed in the eastern North Atlantic 4-7 years earlier than observed at 27 degrees N in the Florida Straits. These westward propagating SHA signals behave approximately like first baroclinic Rossby waves that can modulate changes in the FC seasonal variability upon arrival at the western boundary. The main finding from this study is that changes in coastal sea-level between 25 degrees N and 42 degrees N linked with westward propagating signals account for at least 50% of the FCt. The integrated changes in the coastal sea-level between 25 degrees N and 42 degrees N, in turn, drive adjustments in the geostrophic transport of the FC at 27 degrees N. Results reported here provide an explanation for previously reported year-to-year changes in the FC seasonality, and suggest that large sea-level variations along the coast of Florida may be partially predictable, given that these Rossby-wave-like signals propagate approximately at fixed rates in the open ocean along 27 degrees N.
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...
Androulidakis, Y.; Kourafalou, V.; Halliwell, G.; Le Henaff, M.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M.; Atlas, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Ocean Dynamics, 66(12), 1559-1588.
Description:
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...
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 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...
Domingues, R.; Goni, G.; Baringer, M.; Volkov, D.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 45(24), 13367-13376.
Description:
Since 2005, the Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS) initiative has been collecting, quality-evaluating, distributing, and archiving underway navigational, meteorological, and oceanographic observations from research ve...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124(6), 3645-3663.
Description:
Abstract The seasonal and interannual variability of the Brazil Current (BC) at 22°S is examined using expendable bathythermograph (XBT) transect and satellite altimetry data from 1993 to 2017. The XBT-based mean absolute geostrophic transport of th...
Gomez, F. A.; Lee, S. K.; Liu, Y. Y.; Hernandez, F. J.; Muller-Karger, F. E.; Lamkin, J. T.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Biogeosciences, 15(11), 3561-3576.
Description:
Biogeochemical models that simulate realistic lower-trophic-level dynamics, including the representation of main phytoplankton and zooplankton functional groups, are valuable tools for improving our understanding of natural and anthropogenic disturba...
Archer, M. R.; Keating, S. R.; Roughan, M.; Johns, W. E.; Lumpkin, R.; Beron-Vera, F. J.; Shay, L. K.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 45(12), 6176-6185.
Description:
Western boundary currents (WBCs) modulate the global climate and dominate regional ocean dynamics. Despite their importance, few direct comparisons of the kinematic structure of WBCs exist, due to a lack of equivalent sustained observational data set...
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