Ocean variability and air-sea fluxes produced by atmospheric rivers

Shinoda, Toshiaki; Zamudio, Luis; Guo, Yanjuan; Metzger, E. Joseph; Fairall, C. W.

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-38562-2

Cited by 20 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As discussed above, these large waves were the main responsible for augmenting the sea level in both the short-and long-period bands. Although a few studies have reported relations between ARs and high water levels in continental coastlines (Khouakhi and Villarini 2016;Shinoda et al 2019) via wind setup, what we report here is somewhat different because the phenomena occur on a steep volcanic island surrounded by deep waters where the mechanism is wave setup rather than wind setup. Many issues regarding the connection between ARs and extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui are still unclear for us, but their scientific and societal importance revealed by the observations presented herein motivates their investigation.…”

Section: The Role Of Atmospheric Riverscontrasting

confidence: 65%

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

et al. 2021

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In addition to the tsunami hazard posed by distant great earthquakes, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), in the Southeast Pacific Ocean, is exposed to frequent and intense coastal storms. Here, we use sea-level records and field surveys guided by video and photographic footage to show that extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui occur much more frequent than previously thought and thus constitute an unrecognized hazard to the inland's maritime supply chain. We found that extreme sea-level events, including the two most extreme (March 5th and May 5th, 2020) in our 17-month-long analyzed period (from January 1st, 2019, to May 31st, 2020), resulted from constructive superpositions of seiches on the shelf, storm surges and high tides. By further analyzing time series of atmospheric and wind-generated wave data, we conclude that these extreme sea levels are ultimately driven by the breaking of large waves near the coastline (i.e., wave setup), with lesser contribution of barometric setup and even less of wind setup. We also propose that these large waves were mainly generated from strong, long-lasting, NW winds associated with intense atmospheric rivers (long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport abundant water vapor) passing over Rapa Nui. Given that the intensity of atmospheric rivers and sea level are thought to increase as climate changes, a deeper understanding of the relation between meteorological and oceanographic processes at Rapa Nui is strongly needed.

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Section: The Role Of Atmospheric Riverscontrasting

confidence: 65%

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

et al. 2021

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“…This HYCOM re-analysis data have been intensively validated 50 and used [51][52][53][54] in several contexts during the past ten years. The global HYCOM re-analysis uses the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA) system 55,56 for data assimilation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oceanic vortex mergers are not isolated but influenced by the β-effect and surrounding eddies

Marez

Carton

L’Hégaret

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Oceanic vortices are ubiquitous in the ocean. They dominate the sub-inertial energy spectrum, and their dynamics is key for the evolution of the water column properties. The merger of two like-signed coherent vortices, which ultimately results in the formation of a larger vortex, provides an efficient mechanism for the lateral mixing of water masses in the ocean. Understanding the conditions of such interaction in the ocean is thus essential. Here, we use a merger detection algorithm to draw a global picture of this process in the ocean. We show that vortex mergers are not isolated, contrary to the hypothesis made in most earlier studies. Paradoxically, the merging distance is well reproduced by isolated vortex merger numerical simulations, but it is imperative to consider both the β-effect and the presence of neighbouring eddies to fully understand the physics of oceanic vortex merger.Oceanic vortices, named eddies, impact biological activities 1 , tracer transport 2 , and properties of the water column 3 . It has become clear that the mesoscale (10-100 km) eddy field, is at least as energetic as the large scale circulation 2 , essential for the air-sea interactions 4 , and thus for the evolution of climate 5 . Eddy-eddy interactions therefore play a central role in the evolution of the ocean/atmosphere physics and biology. In particular, vortex merger -the physical process in which two like-signed coherent vortices collapse, ultimately resulting in a larger vortex-is of key importance for the distribution and the transfers of energy across scales in the ocean 6-11 . Since the 80's, an important effort has been undertaken to understand the physics of oceanic vortex merger, including in situ 12 , laboratory 13,14 , and numerical 15 observations, associated with intense theoretical debates [16][17][18] . Most fundamental studies addressed the 'isolated vortex merger' problem, omitting the influence of neighbouring eddies, large scale currents, or boundary, topographic, and planetary effects [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] . Efforts to include more physical effects in studies of vortex merger [26][27][28][29] were often impaired by the lack of general observations in the global ocean, or by the complexity of the resulting dynamical system. Despite recent trials 30 and pointwise observations 12,31-33 , a global description of vortex merger in the ocean is lacking.In this paper, we present an analysis of merging events in the global ocean, using a global 1/12° re-analysis dataset. This study was conducted over a five-year period, in five domains in the middle of each major oceanic basins -these domains a priori respect the hypothesis of isolated vortex merger studies: they are far away from the coastlines, topographic features, and strong currents, and are located at mid-latitudes (see Fig. 1). From 5,867 detected merging events, we infer the actual characteristics of mesoscale eddies that merge, and test the isolated vortex merger problem hypotheses. Further, we compare this analysis with the outcome of 1,600 idealized...

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“…The effect of intensity and duration of irradiation on themal energy storage in water was stated by Wang et al (2019). Furthermore, thermal energy storage in water determines the thermal flux from water to air (Sarbu and Sebarchievici, 2018;Shinoda et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature Gradient Daily Dynamics Area and Time Zoning for Local Analysis of Air-Water Interaction

Medellu

Komansilan

2021

Preprint

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This article describes the results of the application of time zoning for air-water thermal interaction, and the temperature gradient daily dynamics area (TGDDA) parameters at six locations with different ecological conditions. The research locations consisted of two locations in lakes, two locations in coastal waters which were affected by fresh water and two locations in coastal waters which were not affected by fresh water. Measurement of air and water temperature was carried out in situ at several vertical positions with logarithmic distances to the water surface. The results of the analysis show that the analysis and modeling of the TGDDA parameters produce the time zoning of thermal interaction and TGDDA that vary between research locations. Repeated measurements on two consecutive days at the same location, resulted in almost the same TGDDA and time zoning duration of air-water thermal interaction. These results suggest that these parameters can be used to characterize air-water interactions. The results of this study serve as references to the chemical analysis of water and biota which is interactive or influenced by the dynamics of air-water thermal interactions.

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Ocean variability and air-sea fluxes produced by atmospheric rivers

Cited by 20 publications

References 31 publications

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

Oceanic vortex mergers are not isolated but influenced by the β-effect and surrounding eddies

Temperature Gradient Daily Dynamics Area and Time Zoning for Local Analysis of Air-Water Interaction

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Ocean variability and air-sea fluxes produced by atmospheric rivers

Cited by 20 publications

References 31 publications

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

Extreme sea levels at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during intense atmospheric rivers

Oceanic vortex mergers are not isolated but influenced by the β-effect and surrounding eddies

Temperature Gradient Daily Dynamics Area&nbsp;and Time Zoning for Local Analysis of Air-Water Interaction

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Temperature Gradient Daily Dynamics Area and Time Zoning for Local Analysis of Air-Water Interaction