Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x. The ocean’s role in global climate change largely depends on its heat transpor...
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/10125 2023-05-15T17:28:35+02:00 Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic Zhao, Jian Bower, Amy S. Yang, Jiayan Lin, Xiaopei 2018-03-19 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10125 en_US eng Nature Publishing Group https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10416 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10125 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x Article 2018 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x 2022-05-28T23:00:19Z © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x. The ocean’s role in global climate change largely depends on its heat transport. Therefore, understanding the oceanic meridional heat transport (MHT) variability is a fundamental issue. Prevailing observational and modeling evidence suggests that MHT variability is primarily determined by the large-scale ocean circulation. Here, using new in situ observations in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic Ocean and an eddy-resolving numerical model, we show that energetic mesoscale eddies with horizontal scales of about 10–100 km profoundly modulate MHT variability on time scales from intra-seasonal to interannual. Our results reveal that the velocity changes due to mesoscale processes produce substantial variability for the MHT regionally (within sub-basins) and the subpolar North Atlantic as a whole. The findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms for poleward heat transport variability in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean, a key region for heat and carbon sequestration, ice–ocean interaction, and biological productivity. J.Z. was financially supported by the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at WHOI, with funding provided by the Ocean and Climate Change Institute. This work was also supported by the US National Science Foundation (OCE-1258823 and OCE-1634886), as well as by China’s national key research and development projects (2016YFA0601803), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41521091 and U1606402), the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (2015ASKJ01), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (201424001 and 201362048). Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Nature Communications 9 1 |
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Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
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language |
English |
description |
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x. The ocean’s role in global climate change largely depends on its heat transport. Therefore, understanding the oceanic meridional heat transport (MHT) variability is a fundamental issue. Prevailing observational and modeling evidence suggests that MHT variability is primarily determined by the large-scale ocean circulation. Here, using new in situ observations in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic Ocean and an eddy-resolving numerical model, we show that energetic mesoscale eddies with horizontal scales of about 10–100 km profoundly modulate MHT variability on time scales from intra-seasonal to interannual. Our results reveal that the velocity changes due to mesoscale processes produce substantial variability for the MHT regionally (within sub-basins) and the subpolar North Atlantic as a whole. The findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms for poleward heat transport variability in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean, a key region for heat and carbon sequestration, ice–ocean interaction, and biological productivity. J.Z. was financially supported by the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at WHOI, with funding provided by the Ocean and Climate Change Institute. This work was also supported by the US National Science Foundation (OCE-1258823 and OCE-1634886), as well as by China’s national key research and development projects (2016YFA0601803), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41521091 and U1606402), the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (2015ASKJ01), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (201424001 and 201362048). |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zhao, Jian Bower, Amy S. Yang, Jiayan Lin, Xiaopei |
spellingShingle |
Zhao, Jian Bower, Amy S. Yang, Jiayan Lin, Xiaopei Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
author_facet |
Zhao, Jian Bower, Amy S. Yang, Jiayan Lin, Xiaopei |
author_sort |
Zhao, Jian |
title |
Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
title_short |
Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full |
Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic |
title_sort |
meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar north atlantic |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10125 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x |
op_relation |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10416 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1124 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10125 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03134-x |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766121342930780160 |