Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses
Warming of the North Atlantic Ocean from the 1950s to 2012 is analyzed on neutral density surfaces and vertical levels in the upper 2000 m. Three reanalyses and two observational data sets are compared. The net gain of 5 × 1022 J in the upper 2000 m is roughly 30% of the global ocean warming over th...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4681455 2023-05-15T17:29:06+02:00 Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses Häkkinen, Sirpa Rhines, Peter B Worthen, Denise L 2015-04-28 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681455/ https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 en eng John Wiley & Sons, Ltd http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681455/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 ©2015. The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. CC-BY-NC-ND Research Letters Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 2015-12-27T01:17:39Z Warming of the North Atlantic Ocean from the 1950s to 2012 is analyzed on neutral density surfaces and vertical levels in the upper 2000 m. Three reanalyses and two observational data sets are compared. The net gain of 5 × 1022 J in the upper 2000 m is roughly 30% of the global ocean warming over this period. Upper ocean heat content (OHC) is dominated in most regions by heat transport convergence without widespread changes in the potential temperature/salinity relation. The heat convergence is associated with sinking of midthermocline isopycnals, with maximum sinking occurring at potential densities σ0 = 26.4−27.3, which contain subtropical mode waters. Water masses lighter than σ0 = 27.3 accumulate heat by increasing their volume, while heavier waters lose heat by decreasing their volume. Spatially, the OHC trend is nonuniform: the low latitudes, 0–30°N are warming steadily while large multidecadal variability occurs at latitudes 30–65°N. Text North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Geophysical Research Letters 42 8 2901 2909 |
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English |
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Research Letters |
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Research Letters Häkkinen, Sirpa Rhines, Peter B Worthen, Denise L Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
topic_facet |
Research Letters |
description |
Warming of the North Atlantic Ocean from the 1950s to 2012 is analyzed on neutral density surfaces and vertical levels in the upper 2000 m. Three reanalyses and two observational data sets are compared. The net gain of 5 × 1022 J in the upper 2000 m is roughly 30% of the global ocean warming over this period. Upper ocean heat content (OHC) is dominated in most regions by heat transport convergence without widespread changes in the potential temperature/salinity relation. The heat convergence is associated with sinking of midthermocline isopycnals, with maximum sinking occurring at potential densities σ0 = 26.4−27.3, which contain subtropical mode waters. Water masses lighter than σ0 = 27.3 accumulate heat by increasing their volume, while heavier waters lose heat by decreasing their volume. Spatially, the OHC trend is nonuniform: the low latitudes, 0–30°N are warming steadily while large multidecadal variability occurs at latitudes 30–65°N. |
format |
Text |
author |
Häkkinen, Sirpa Rhines, Peter B Worthen, Denise L |
author_facet |
Häkkinen, Sirpa Rhines, Peter B Worthen, Denise L |
author_sort |
Häkkinen, Sirpa |
title |
Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
title_short |
Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
title_full |
Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
title_fullStr |
Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
title_full_unstemmed |
Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses |
title_sort |
heat content variability in the north atlantic ocean in ocean reanalyses |
publisher |
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681455/ https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681455/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 |
op_rights |
©2015. The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063299 |
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Geophysical Research Letters |
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42 |
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8 |
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2901 |
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2909 |
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1766122687203115008 |