Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave
The North Atlantic and Europe experienced two extreme climate events in 2015: exceptionally cold ocean surface temperatures and a summer heat wave ranked in the top ten over the past 65 years. Here, we show that the cold ocean temperatures were the most extreme in the modern record over much of the...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:df6137cab69c48c08f01023cf2f67a1f 2023-09-05T13:21:24+02:00 Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave Aurélie Duchez Eleanor Frajka-Williams Simon A Josey Dafydd G Evans Jeremy P Grist Robert Marsh Gerard D McCarthy Bablu Sinha David I Berry Joël J-M Hirschi 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 https://doaj.org/article/df6137cab69c48c08f01023cf2f67a1f EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/df6137cab69c48c08f01023cf2f67a1f Environmental Research Letters, Vol 11, Iss 7, p 074004 (2016) 2015 heat wave cold Atlantic Ocean anomaly ocean atmosphere interactions North Atlantic ocean variability air-sea fluxes Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 2023-08-13T00:37:47Z The North Atlantic and Europe experienced two extreme climate events in 2015: exceptionally cold ocean surface temperatures and a summer heat wave ranked in the top ten over the past 65 years. Here, we show that the cold ocean temperatures were the most extreme in the modern record over much of the mid-high latitude North-East Atlantic. Further, by considering surface heat loss, ocean heat content and wind driven upwelling we explain for the first time the genesis of this cold ocean anomaly. We find that it is primarily due to extreme ocean heat loss driven by atmospheric circulation changes in the preceding two winters combined with the re-emergence of cold ocean water masses. Furthermore, we reveal that a similar cold Atlantic anomaly was also present prior to the most extreme European heat waves since the 1980s indicating that it is a common factor in the development of these events. For the specific case of 2015, we show that the ocean anomaly is linked to a stationary position of the Jet Stream that favours the development of high surface temperatures over Central Europe during the heat wave. Our study calls for an urgent assessment of the impact of ocean drivers on major European summer temperature extremes in order to provide better advance warning measures of these high societal impact events. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North East Atlantic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Environmental Research Letters 11 7 074004 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
2015 heat wave cold Atlantic Ocean anomaly ocean atmosphere interactions North Atlantic ocean variability air-sea fluxes Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
2015 heat wave cold Atlantic Ocean anomaly ocean atmosphere interactions North Atlantic ocean variability air-sea fluxes Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Aurélie Duchez Eleanor Frajka-Williams Simon A Josey Dafydd G Evans Jeremy P Grist Robert Marsh Gerard D McCarthy Bablu Sinha David I Berry Joël J-M Hirschi Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
topic_facet |
2015 heat wave cold Atlantic Ocean anomaly ocean atmosphere interactions North Atlantic ocean variability air-sea fluxes Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
The North Atlantic and Europe experienced two extreme climate events in 2015: exceptionally cold ocean surface temperatures and a summer heat wave ranked in the top ten over the past 65 years. Here, we show that the cold ocean temperatures were the most extreme in the modern record over much of the mid-high latitude North-East Atlantic. Further, by considering surface heat loss, ocean heat content and wind driven upwelling we explain for the first time the genesis of this cold ocean anomaly. We find that it is primarily due to extreme ocean heat loss driven by atmospheric circulation changes in the preceding two winters combined with the re-emergence of cold ocean water masses. Furthermore, we reveal that a similar cold Atlantic anomaly was also present prior to the most extreme European heat waves since the 1980s indicating that it is a common factor in the development of these events. For the specific case of 2015, we show that the ocean anomaly is linked to a stationary position of the Jet Stream that favours the development of high surface temperatures over Central Europe during the heat wave. Our study calls for an urgent assessment of the impact of ocean drivers on major European summer temperature extremes in order to provide better advance warning measures of these high societal impact events. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aurélie Duchez Eleanor Frajka-Williams Simon A Josey Dafydd G Evans Jeremy P Grist Robert Marsh Gerard D McCarthy Bablu Sinha David I Berry Joël J-M Hirschi |
author_facet |
Aurélie Duchez Eleanor Frajka-Williams Simon A Josey Dafydd G Evans Jeremy P Grist Robert Marsh Gerard D McCarthy Bablu Sinha David I Berry Joël J-M Hirschi |
author_sort |
Aurélie Duchez |
title |
Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
title_short |
Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
title_full |
Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
title_fullStr |
Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
title_full_unstemmed |
Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave |
title_sort |
drivers of exceptionally cold north atlantic ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 european heat wave |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 https://doaj.org/article/df6137cab69c48c08f01023cf2f67a1f |
genre |
North Atlantic North East Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North East Atlantic |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 11, Iss 7, p 074004 (2016) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/df6137cab69c48c08f01023cf2f67a1f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074004 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
074004 |
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1776202015080185856 |