On the seasonal variations of ocean bottom pressure in the world oceans

Abstract Seasonal variability of the ocean bottom pressure (OBP) in the world oceans is investigated using 15 years of GRACE observations and a Pressure Coordinate Ocean Model (PCOM). In boreal winter, negative OBP anomalies appear in the northern North Pacific, subtropical South Pacific and north o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geoscience Letters
Main Authors: Cheng, Xuhua, Ou, Niansen, Chen, Jiajia, Huang, Rui Xin
Other Authors: the National Key R&D Program of China
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
Subjects:
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Indian
Pacific
Southern Ocean
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40562-021-00199-3
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40562-021-00199-3.pdf
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40562-021-00199-3/fulltext.html
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Summary:Abstract Seasonal variability of the ocean bottom pressure (OBP) in the world oceans is investigated using 15 years of GRACE observations and a Pressure Coordinate Ocean Model (PCOM). In boreal winter, negative OBP anomalies appear in the northern North Pacific, subtropical South Pacific and north of 40 °S in the Indian Ocean, while OBP anomaly in the Southern Ocean is positive. The summer pattern is opposite to that in winter. The centers of positive (negative) OBP signals have a good coherence with the mass convergence/divergence due to Ekman transport, indicating the importance of wind forcing. The PCOM model reproduces the observed OBP quite well. Sensitivity experiments indicate that wind forcing dominates the regional OBP seasonal variations, while the contributions due to heat flux and freshwater flux are unimportant. Experiments with daily sea level pressure (SLP) forcing suggest that at high frequencies the non-static effect of SLP is not negligible.

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