Understanding Global Climate Change with Ocean Acoustic Tomography and Models

• Main Authors: Spiesberger, John L., Frye, Daniel E., Hurlburt, Harley E., Johnson, Mark A., O'Brien, James J.
• Other Authors: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1992
• Subjects: Meteorology; Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; Acoustics; *OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA; *ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENT; *MARINE CLIMATOLOGY; *AIR WATER INTERACTIONS; TEMPERATURE; OCEAN WAVES; OCEAN CURRENTS; ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE; PRESSURE; CLIMATE; MAPPING; TOMOGRAPHY; SALINITY; ACOUSTIC VELOCITY; OCEAN MODELS; TRAVEL TIME; MOORING; TELEMETER SYSTEMS; PE62435N; Fairbanks; ice core; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA298499; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA298499

Paleoclimate inferred from the Vostok ice core provides tantalizing evidence that increases in atmospheric CO2 are dynamically linked with increases in atmospheric temperature (Jouzel et al., 1987; Barnola et al., 1987; Genthon et al., 1987). However, the mechanisms responsible for the temporal and spatial scales of the accompanying temperature change are not understood because, in part, the ocean's role is not well understood. New technology is required to see inside the global oceans where vasts amount of heat are redistributed and eventually exchanged with the atmosphere. Waves and other features at large scales, approximately 100 to 10,000 km, having time scales less than centuries are virtually unexplored but these scales are important for understanding climate change (Gill, 1982; Philander, 1990). We are developing novel acoustic instruments that have the potential for measuring these scales in the global oceans in real-time. The cost for these measurements is projected to be less than the costs of mapping temperature and other variables in the atmosphere (Spiesberger, 1992). (MM) Prepared in collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA; University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL; Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novgorod, Russia.