Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle
The global water cycle involves water-mass transport on land, in the atmosphere, in the ocean, and among them. Quantification of such transport, especially its time evolution, is essential to identify the footprints of climate change, and it also helps to constrain and improve climatic models. In th...
Published in: | Earth System Dynamics |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/11/1089/2020/ |
id |
ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:esd86979 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:esd86979 2023-05-15T15:11:38+02:00 Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle García-García, David Vigo, Isabel Trottini, Mario 2020-12-07 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/11/1089/2020/ eng eng doi:10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/11/1089/2020/ eISSN: 2190-4987 Text 2020 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 2020-12-14T17:22:15Z The global water cycle involves water-mass transport on land, in the atmosphere, in the ocean, and among them. Quantification of such transport, especially its time evolution, is essential to identify the footprints of climate change, and it also helps to constrain and improve climatic models. In the ocean, net water-mass transport among the ocean basins is a key process, but it is currently a poorly estimated parameter. We propose a new methodology that incorporates the time-variable gravity observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite (2003–2016) to estimate the change in water content; this new approach also overcomes some fundamental limitations of existing methods. We show that the Pacific and Arctic oceans receive an average of 1916 (95 % confidence interval of [1812, 2021]) Gt per month ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.72</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.02</mn></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="29a0658d664d93e6c6308d8ed59f3b73"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="esd-11-1089-2020-ie00001.svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" src="esd-11-1089-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> Sv) of excess freshwater from the atmosphere and the continents that is discharged into the Atlantic and Indian oceans, where net evaporation minus precipitation returns the water to complete the cycle. This is in contrast to previous GRACE-based studies, where the notion of a see-saw mass exchange between the Pacific and the Atlantic and Indian oceans has been reported. Seasonal climatology as well as the interannual variability of water-mass transport are also reported. Text Arctic Climate change Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Indian Pacific Earth System Dynamics 11 4 1089 1106 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
The global water cycle involves water-mass transport on land, in the atmosphere, in the ocean, and among them. Quantification of such transport, especially its time evolution, is essential to identify the footprints of climate change, and it also helps to constrain and improve climatic models. In the ocean, net water-mass transport among the ocean basins is a key process, but it is currently a poorly estimated parameter. We propose a new methodology that incorporates the time-variable gravity observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite (2003–2016) to estimate the change in water content; this new approach also overcomes some fundamental limitations of existing methods. We show that the Pacific and Arctic oceans receive an average of 1916 (95 % confidence interval of [1812, 2021]) Gt per month ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.72</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.02</mn></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="29a0658d664d93e6c6308d8ed59f3b73"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="esd-11-1089-2020-ie00001.svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" src="esd-11-1089-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> Sv) of excess freshwater from the atmosphere and the continents that is discharged into the Atlantic and Indian oceans, where net evaporation minus precipitation returns the water to complete the cycle. This is in contrast to previous GRACE-based studies, where the notion of a see-saw mass exchange between the Pacific and the Atlantic and Indian oceans has been reported. Seasonal climatology as well as the interannual variability of water-mass transport are also reported. |
format |
Text |
author |
García-García, David Vigo, Isabel Trottini, Mario |
spellingShingle |
García-García, David Vigo, Isabel Trottini, Mario Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
author_facet |
García-García, David Vigo, Isabel Trottini, Mario |
author_sort |
García-García, David |
title |
Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
title_short |
Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
title_full |
Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
title_fullStr |
Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
title_full_unstemmed |
Water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
title_sort |
water transport among the world ocean basins within the water cycle |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/11/1089/2020/ |
geographic |
Arctic Indian Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Indian Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_source |
eISSN: 2190-4987 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/11/1089/2020/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-11-1089-2020 |
container_title |
Earth System Dynamics |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1089 |
op_container_end_page |
1106 |
_version_ |
1766342472201404416 |