Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts
The ocean is the largest solar energy collector on Earth. The amount of heat it can store is modulated by its complex circulation, which spans a broad range of spatial scales, from metres to thousands of kilometres. In the classical paradigm, fine oceanic scales, less than 20 km in size, are thoug...
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:f6q9t-90s40 2024-06-23T07:47:54+00:00 Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Rivière, Pascal Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Flexas, Mar Menemenlis, Dimitris 2020-01 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 unknown Nature Publishing Group https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:f6q9t-90s40 eprintid:99047 resolverid:CaltechAUTHORS:20191003-111504890 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Other Nature Geoscience, 13(1), 50-55, (2020-01) Physical oceanography info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2020 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 2024-06-12T03:52:28Z The ocean is the largest solar energy collector on Earth. The amount of heat it can store is modulated by its complex circulation, which spans a broad range of spatial scales, from metres to thousands of kilometres. In the classical paradigm, fine oceanic scales, less than 20 km in size, are thought to drive a significant downward heat transport from the surface to the ocean interior, which increases oceanic heat uptake. Here we use a combination of satellite and in situ observations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to diagnose oceanic vertical heat transport. The results explicitly demonstrate how deep-reaching submesoscale fronts, with a size smaller than 20 km, are generated by mesoscale eddies of size 50–300 km. In contrast to the classical paradigm, these submesoscale fronts are shown to drive an anomalous upward heat transport from the ocean interior back to the surface that is larger than other contributions to vertical heat transport and of comparable magnitude to air–sea fluxes. This effect can remarkably alter the oceanic heat uptake and will be strongest in eddy-rich regions, such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Kuroshio Extension and the Gulf Stream, all of which are key players in the climate system. © 2019 Springer Nature Limited. Received 18 June 2019; Accepted 16 October 2019; Published 02 December 2019. We thank K. Richards for his insightful comments, F. d'Ovidio for providing the code to compute FSLE. The elephant seal work was supported as part of the SNO-MEMO and by the CNES-TOSCA project Elephant seals as Oceanographic Samplers of submesoscale features led by C. Guinet with support of the French Polar Institute (programmes 109 and 1201). This research was carried out, in part, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). High-end computing resources for the numerical simulation were provided by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at the Ames Research ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic Nature Geoscience 13 1 50 55 |
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Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
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Physical oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Physical oceanography Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Rivière, Pascal Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Flexas, Mar Menemenlis, Dimitris Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
topic_facet |
Physical oceanography |
description |
The ocean is the largest solar energy collector on Earth. The amount of heat it can store is modulated by its complex circulation, which spans a broad range of spatial scales, from metres to thousands of kilometres. In the classical paradigm, fine oceanic scales, less than 20 km in size, are thought to drive a significant downward heat transport from the surface to the ocean interior, which increases oceanic heat uptake. Here we use a combination of satellite and in situ observations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to diagnose oceanic vertical heat transport. The results explicitly demonstrate how deep-reaching submesoscale fronts, with a size smaller than 20 km, are generated by mesoscale eddies of size 50–300 km. In contrast to the classical paradigm, these submesoscale fronts are shown to drive an anomalous upward heat transport from the ocean interior back to the surface that is larger than other contributions to vertical heat transport and of comparable magnitude to air–sea fluxes. This effect can remarkably alter the oceanic heat uptake and will be strongest in eddy-rich regions, such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Kuroshio Extension and the Gulf Stream, all of which are key players in the climate system. © 2019 Springer Nature Limited. Received 18 June 2019; Accepted 16 October 2019; Published 02 December 2019. We thank K. Richards for his insightful comments, F. d'Ovidio for providing the code to compute FSLE. The elephant seal work was supported as part of the SNO-MEMO and by the CNES-TOSCA project Elephant seals as Oceanographic Samplers of submesoscale features led by C. Guinet with support of the French Polar Institute (programmes 109 and 1201). This research was carried out, in part, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). High-end computing resources for the numerical simulation were provided by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at the Ames Research ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Rivière, Pascal Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Flexas, Mar Menemenlis, Dimitris |
author_facet |
Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Rivière, Pascal Thompson, Andrew F. Torres, Hector S. Flexas, Mar Menemenlis, Dimitris |
author_sort |
Siegelman, Lia |
title |
Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
title_short |
Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
title_full |
Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
title_fullStr |
Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
title_full_unstemmed |
Enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
title_sort |
enhanced upward heat transport at deep submesoscale ocean fronts |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Nature Geoscience, 13(1), 50-55, (2020-01) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:f6q9t-90s40 eprintid:99047 resolverid:CaltechAUTHORS:20191003-111504890 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0489-1 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
50 |
op_container_end_page |
55 |
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1802638148834951168 |