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In this study, the Adriatic Sea and Coast (AdriSC) kilometre-scale atmosphere–ocean climate model covering the Adriatic Sea and northern Ionian Sea is presented. The AdriSC ocean results of a 31-year-long (i.e. 1987–2017) climate simulation, derived with the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 3 km and 1 km models, are evaluated with respect to a comprehensive collection of remote sensing and in situ observational data. In general, it is found that the AdriSC model is capable of reproducing the observed sea surface properties, daily temperatures and salinities, and the hourly ocean currents with good accuracy. In particular, the AdriSC ROMS 3 km model demonstrates skill in reproducing the main variabilities of the sea surface height and the sea surface temperature, despite a persistent negative bias within the Adriatic Sea. Furthermore, the AdriSC ROMS 1 km model is found to be more capable of reproducing the observed thermohaline and dynamical properties than the AdriSC ROMS 3 km model. For the temperature and salinity, better results are obtained in the deeper parts than in the shallow shelf and coastal parts, particularly for the surface layer of the Adriatic Sea. The AdriSC ROMS 1 km model is also found to perform well in reproducing the seasonal thermohaline properties of the water masses over the entire Adriatic–Ionian domain. The evaluation of the modelled ocean currents revealed better results at locations along the eastern coast and especially the northeastern shelf than in the middle eastern coastal area and the deepest part of the Adriatic Sea. Finally, the AdriSC climate component is found to be a more suitable modelling framework to study the dense water formation and long-term thermohaline circulation of the Adriatic–Ionian basin than the available Mediterranean regional climate models.

The North Atlantic north of 50 ∘ N is one of the most intense ocean sink areas for atmospheric CO 2 considering the flux per unit area, 0.27 Pg-C yr −1 , equivalent to −2.5 mol C m −2 yr −1 . The northwest Atlantic Ocean is a region with high anthropogenic carbon inventories. This is on account of processes which sustain CO 2 air–sea fluxes, in particular strong seasonal winds, ocean heat loss, deep convective mixing, and CO 2 drawdown by primary production. The region is in the northern limb of the global thermohaline circulation, a path for the long-term deep-sea sequestration of carbon dioxide. The surface water masses in the North Atlantic are of contrasting origins and character, with the northward-flowing North Atlantic Drift, a Gulf Stream offspring, on the one hand and on the other hand the cold southward-moving low-salinity Polar and Arctic waters with signatures from Arctic freshwater sources. We have studied by observation the CO 2 air–sea flux of the relevant water masses in the vicinity of Iceland in all seasons and in different years. Here we show that the highest ocean CO 2 influx is to the Arctic and Polar waters, respectively, - 3.8 ± 0.4 and - 4.4 ± 0.3 mol C m −2 yr −1 . These waters are CO 2 undersaturated in all seasons. The Atlantic Water is a weak or neutral sink, near CO 2 saturation, after poleward drift from subtropical latitudes. These characteristics of the three water masses are confirmed by data from observations covering 30 years. We relate the Polar Water and Arctic Water persistent undersaturation and CO 2 influx to the excess alkalinity derived from Arctic sources. Carbonate chemistry equilibrium calculations clearly indicate that the excess alkalinity may support at least 0.058 Pg-C yr −1 , a significant portion of the North Atlantic CO 2 sink. The Arctic contribution to the North Atlantic CO 2 sink which we reveal was previously unrecognized. However, we point out that there are gaps and conflicts in the knowledge about the Arctic alkalinity and carbonate budgets and that future trends in the North Atlantic CO 2 sink are connected to developments in the rapidly warming and changing Arctic. The results we present need to be taken into consideration for the following question: will the North Atlantic continue to absorb CO 2 in the future as it has in the past?

Where earlier generations of ocean models with resolution of 1° or coarser tended to represent wintertime dense water formation in the North Atlantic mainly as a process of open water convection in the Labrador Sea and Nordic Seas, more recent models with higher resolution, in conjunction with observational programmes such as OSNAP, have presented us with a new, more complex, picture. Watermasses are progressively ventilated and lose buoyancy as they propagate cyclonically westward around the gyre, starting with the formation of Subpolar Mode Water close to the eastern boundary, and eventually leading to Labrador Sea Water, which forms part of the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).We present a set of hindcast integrations of a global 1/4° NEMO ocean configuration from 1958 until nearly the present day, forced with three standard surface forcing datasets. We use the surface-forced streamfunction, estimated from surface buoyancy fluxes, along with the overturning streamfunction, similarly defined in potential density space, to investigate the causal link between surface forcing and decadal variability in the strength of the AMOC. We confirm that surface heat loss from the Irminger Sea is the dominant mechanism for decadal AMOC variability, while that from the Labrador Sea has about half the amplitude. The AMOC variability is shown to be related to that of the North Atlantic Oscillation, primarily through the surface heat flux, itself dominated by the air-sea temperature difference, and we show that a metric based on the surface-forced streamfunction has predictive value for AMOC variability on interannual to decadal time scales.

As a continuation of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP), PlioMIP Phase 2 (PlioMIP2) coordinates a wide selection of different climate model experiments aimed at further improving our understanding of the climate and environments during the late Pliocene with updated boundary conditions. Here we report on PlioMIP2 simulations carried out by the two versions of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM), NorESM-L and NorESM1-F, with updated boundary conditions derived from the Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping version 4 (PRISM4). NorESM1-M is the version of NorESM that contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). NorESM-L is the low-resolution of NorESM1-M, whereas NorESM1-F is a computationally efficient version of NorESM1-M, with similar resolutions and updated physics. Relative to NorESM1-M, there are notable improvements in simulating the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and the distribution of sea ice in NorESM1-F, partly due to the updated ocean physics. The two NorESM versions both produce warmer and wetter Pliocene climate, with a greater warming over land than over ocean. Relative to the preindustrial period, the simulated Pliocene global mean surface air temperature is 2.1 ∘C higher with NorESM-L and 1.7 ∘C higher with NorESM1-F, and the corresponding global mean sea surface temperature enhances by 1.5 and 1.2 ∘C. The simulated precipitation for the Pliocene increases by 0.14 mm d−1 globally in both model versions, with large increases in the tropics and especially in the monsoon regions and only minor changes, or even slight decreases, in subtropical regions. The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) shifts northward in the Atlantic and Africa in boreal summer. In the simulated warmer and wetter Pliocene world, AMOC becomes deeper and stronger, with the maximum AMOC levels increasing by ∼9 % (with NorESM-L) and ∼15 % (with NorESM1-F), while the meridional overturning circulation slightly strengthens in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Although the two models produce similar Pliocene climates, they also generate some differences, in particular for the Southern Ocean and the northern middle and high latitudes, which should be investigated through PlioMIP2 in the future. As compared to PlioMIP1, the simulated Pliocene warming with NorESM-L is weaker in PlioMIP2 but otherwise shows very similar responses.

The climate in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) of the mid-6th century was one of the coldest during the last two millennia. The onset of this cold period is attributed to the volcanic double eruption event in 536 and 540 Common Era (CE) based on multiple paleo-proxies. Recently, there has been a debate about how long lasting and cold this volcanic induced cold period actually was. To better understand this, we analyze new transient simulations over the Common Era and enhance the representation of mid 6th to 7th century climate by additional ensemble simulations covering 520–680 CE. We use the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model and apply external forcing as recommended in the Paleo Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 4. After the four large eruptions in 536, 540, 574, and 626 CE, a significant surface climate response up to 20 years is simulated. The Northern Hemisphere 2 m air temperature, and precipitation decreases up to 2 K, and 0.2 mm day−1, respectively, and sea ice area increases up to 1.5 x 1012 m2. The global ocean heat content decreases drastically by 1.5 x 1023 Jm−1, which is significant for 30–40 years, and does not totally recover during the entire study period. The surface maps reveal atmospheric circulation changes with a hemispheric dipole pattern and land see contrast in the first two years after the eruptions. Poleward of ∼ 45° N higher sea level pressure and a decrease in hydrological variables occur, accompanied by a land see contrast, with decreased values over land and an increase in values over the ocean, which is especially pronounced for evaporation during boreal summer. During boreal winter, a positive North Atlantic Oscillation develops in the first year after (three out of the four) large eruptions. Analysing underlying mechanisms in the North Atlantic reveals that complex interaction between sea-ice expansion, changes in barotropic streamfunction and meridional overturning circulation leads to a reduction in the ocean heat transport, which then further enhances sea ice expansion impacting NH surface climate up to 20 years. Temperature records reconstructed from tree-rings in the NH agree well with the model simulations and show a similar ∼20 year cooling after the eruptions. A century of surface cooling starting in the mid-6th century, as shown from local tree-ring records from the Alps and Altai, does not occur in our volcanic climate model simulations, nor in the NH tree-ring compilation.

Oceanographic fronts are transitions between thermohaline structures with different characteristics. Such transitions are ubiquitous, and their locations and properties affect how the ocean operates as part of the global climate system. In the Southern Ocean, fronts have classically been defined using a small number of continuous, circumpolar features in sea surface height or dynamic height. Modern observational and theoretical developments are challenging and expanding this traditional framework to accommodate a more complex view of fronts. Here, we present a complementary new approach for calculating fronts using an unsupervised classification method called Gaussian mixture modelling (GMM) and a novel inter-class parameter called the I-metric. The I-metric approach produces a probabilistic view of front location, emphasising the fact that the boundaries between water masses are not uniformly sharp across the entire Southern Ocean. The I-metric approach uses thermohaline information from a range of depth levels, making it more general than approaches that only use near-surface properties. We train the GMM using an observationally constrained state estimate in order to have more uniform spatial and temporal data coverage. The probabilistic boundaries defined by the I-metric roughly coincide with several classically defined fronts, offering a novel view of this structure. The I-metric fronts appear to be relatively sharp in the open ocean and somewhat diffuse near large topographic features, possibly highlighting the importance of topographically induced mixing. For comparison with a more localised method, we also use an edge detection approach for identifying fronts. We find a strong correlation between the edge field of the leading principal component and the zonal velocity; the edge detection method highlights the presence of jets, which are supported by thermal wind balance. This more localised method highlights the complex, multiscale structure of Southern Ocean fronts, complementing and contrasting with the more domain-wide view offered by the I-metric. The Sobel edge detection method may be useful for defining and tracking smaller-scale fronts and jets in model or reanalysis data. The I-metric approach may prove to be a useful method for inter-model comparison, as it uses the thermohaline structure of those models instead of tracking somewhat ad hoc values of sea surface height and/or dynamic height, which can vary considerably between models. In addition, the general I-metric approach allows front definitions to shift with changing temperature and salinity structures, which may be useful for characterising fronts in a changing climate.

Internal solitary waves (ISWs) are typical large-amplitude nonlinear waves occurring in stratified oceans. The in situ observations of ISWs are needed to improve the regimes of nonlinear internal wave theories. There is violent mixing of water mass in the horizontal and vertical directions during the propagation of ISWs, which generally lasts for a short period at a fixed position. However, an underwater glider, with the features of low-speed and sawtooth motion, cannot obtain a complete thermohaline stratification before and after the ISWs arrival. Those thermohaline data collected in situ by gliders, which vary synchronously at spatial-temporal scales, raise challenges for identifying the ISWs. Four Petrel-II gliders are deployed in the active region of ISWs in the South China Sea. This paper estimates vertical water velocity from glider flight data and kinematic model, analyzes the sensitivity of parameters in the glider kinematic model, and adopts a standard nonlinear search method to calibrate the parameters insensitive to the vertical velocity. The depth-keeping experiment is performed to verify the effectiveness of the optimized results. The standard deviation of vertical water velocity in the eastern Dongsha Atoll is revealed, and its distribution indirectly reflects that the strength of vertical water activity increases gradually at the same latitude along the east-west direction. Using observations of vertical water velocity fluctuations and isothermal surface vertical displacements, single- and multiple-wave packets can be identified. The availability of this method is tested by comparison with a MODIS image. Such an analysis provides a basis for the application of glider in the observation of ISWs.

The Southern Brazilian Continental Shelf (SBCS) is an area with great ecological and economic importance to Brazil. In this region can be observed the recurrent passage of frontal systems and extra-tropical cyclones, which are more frequent during the winter months of the southern hemisphere. These systems act on the ocean surface layers as direct driving forces, which may change the thermohaline structure of the water column and induce sea level perturbations. This study used the coupled ocean-atmosphere regional model (COAWST) to evaluate the effect of the passage of a frontal system associated with an extra-tropical cyclone. The ROMS oceanic model was configured with two nested grids, in order to solve the hydrodynamic processes at different scales. The parent (20–40° S/40–60° W) and child (25–29.3° S/46.3–50° W) grid comprise the coastal region, with a horizontal resolution of 1/9° and 1/27°, respectively, with 32 vertical levels. The initial conditions are the Global Analysis Forecast from CMEMS and forcing files used the Climate Forecast System v.2 (CFSv2) data, from NCEP. This event took place on the continental shelf of the State of Santa Catarina, in September of 2016. The model results were compared to remote sensing data and to the tide gauges from the City of Imbituba (State of Santa Catarina, Brazil). The comparison showed a correlation higher than 78 % between sea level rise data and the model results. The filtering of sea level data made it possible to identify the meteorological component in the model results. The comparison between the tidal-gauge and the model output presented values under 25 cm. The model was capable of representing the sea level anomalies propagation associated with the passage of the atmospheric frontal system. The model output showed the presence of a sea level anomaly propagating northward along the continental shelf at 480 km day−1, probably associated with the presence of a coastal-trapped wave.

The meridional circulation and transports at 32oS in the Pacific Ocean in 1992 and 2017 are compared with analogous data from 2003 and 2009. The hydrographic data comes from the GO-SHIP database and an inverse box model has been applied with several constraints. In 1992, 2003 and 2017 the pattern of the overturning streamfunction is similar, but in 2009 the pattern of the circulation changes in the whole water column. The horizontal distribution of mass transports at all depths in 1992 and in 2017 changes notably from the “bowed gyre” found in 2009 and resembles that regular shape of 2003. The hydrographic data have also been compared with analogous data obtained from the numerical modelling output of GFDL, ECCO, and SOSE. Results show that the numerical modelling output in the upper layers (γn3) have a roughly similar pattern as hydrographic data. This is not the case, however, for deep and bottom layers (γn>27.58 kg/m3), where noticeable differences are found. Furthermore, the temperature transport in 2009 (0.16 ± 0.12 PW) is significantly lower than in 1992 (0.42 ± 0.12 PW), 2003 (0.38 ± 0.12 PW) and 2017 (0.42 ± 0.12 PW). In addition, the freshwater transport result in 2009 (0.50 ± 0.03 Sv) is significantly higher than in 1992 (0.26 ± 0.08 Sv), 2003 (0.25 ± 0.02 Sv) and 2017 (0.34 ± 0.08 Sv). Westward Rossby waves are presumably the dynamical forcing that changes the circulation pattern in 2009.

The inflow of relatively warm and salty water from the Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic via Agulhas leakage is important for the global overturning circulation and the global climate. In this study, we analyse the robustness of Agulhas leakage estimates as well as the thermohaline property modifications of Agulhas leakage south of Africa. Lagrangian experiments with both the newly developed tool Parcels and the well established tool Ariane were performed to simulate Agulhas leakage in the eddy-rich ocean–sea-ice model INALT20 (1/20∘ horizontal resolution) forced by the JRA55-do atmospheric boundary conditions. The average transport, its variability, trend and the transit time from the Agulhas Current to the Cape Basin of Agulhas leakage is simulated comparably with both Lagrangian tools, emphasizing the robustness of our method. Different designs of the Lagrangian experiment alter in particular the total transport of Agulhas leakage by up to 2 Sv, but the variability and trend of the transport are similar across these estimates. During the transit from the Agulhas Current at 32∘ S to the Cape Basin, a cooling and freshening of Agulhas leakage waters occurs especially at the location of the Agulhas Retroflection, resulting in a density increase as the thermal effect dominates. Beyond the strong air–sea exchange around South Africa, Agulhas leakage warms and salinifies the water masses below the thermocline in the South Atlantic.

On the basis of various data sets we traced formation of a ‘dome’- shaped density structure over the Central Bank - an important morphological element of the Barents Sea bottom topography. The major conclusion, which follows from our analysis, based on direct winter measurements in 2019, is that under reduced ice cover, transformation of thermohaline structure during the cold season principally differs from that under the ‘normal’ climate conditions in the 20th century. Transition from the stratified vertical structure (in summer) to the homogeneous one (in winter) is governed by thermal convection. Additional input of warm and salty water with inflowing AW is crucial to allow reaching the seabed vertical mixing before the temperature drops to the freezing point. Cascading of dense water from the bank commences as soon as convection has spread to the seabed. The influence of cascading on the Barents Sea hydrographic structure extends far away from the bank. In the absence of advective influx of salt and warm water vertical convection can also reach the seabed. However, under this condition formation of sea ice and haline convection is required. In this case water temperature in the homogeneous water column over the bank is close to the freezing point. Obtained results suggest that in the warmer climate the role of sea ice in winter transformation of thermohaline conditions over the bank is opposite to what it was in the ‘normal’ climate: imported sea ice blocks convection, thus making the water in the dense ‘dome’ warmer than it typically was throughout the 20th century.

In this study we assess to what extent seven different dynamical prediction systems can retrospectively predict the winter sea surface temperature (SST) in the subpolar North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas in the time period 1970-2005. We focus in particular on the region where warm water flows poleward, i.e., the Atlantic water pathway, and on interannual-to-decadal time scales. To better understand why dynamical prediction systems have predictive skill or lack thereof, we confront them with a mechanism identified from observations – propagation of oceanic anomalies from low to high latitudes – on different forecast lead times. This observed mechanism shows that warm and cold anomalies propagate along the Atlantic water pathway within a certain time frame. A key result from this study is that most models have difficulty representing this mechanism, resulting in an overall poor prediction skill after 1-2 years lead times (after applying a band-pass filter to focus on interannual-to-decadal time scales). There is a link, although not very strong, between predictive skill and the representation of the SST propagation. Observational studies demonstrate predictability several years in advance in this region, thus suggesting a great potential for improvement of dynamical climate predictions by resolving the causes for the misrepresentation of the oceanic link. Inter model differences in simulating surface velocities along the Atlantic water pathway suggest that realistic velocities are important to better circulate anomalies poleward, and hence, increase predictive skill on interannual-to-decadal time scales in the oceanic gateway to the Arctic.

The Southern Ocean is responsible for the majority of the global oceanic heat uptake which contributes to global sea level rise. At the same time, ocean temperature does not change everywhere at the same rate and salinity changes are also associated with sea level variability. Changes in heat and salt content drive together variations in the steric height that differ importantly in both time and space. This study investigates steric height variability in the Southern Ocean from 2008 to 2017 by analysing temperature and salinity variations obtained from global ocean reanalyses. The thermohaline variability is decomposed on so-called thermohaline modes using a functional Principal Component Analysis (fPCA). Thermohaline modes provide a natural basis on which to decompose the joint temperature-salinity vertical profiles into a sum of vertical modes weighted by their respective principal components. Steric height was computed in the reanalyses and related to the principal component using a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model. Trends in steric height are found to differ significantly between subtropical and subpolar regions, simultaneously which with a shift from a thermohaline stratification dominated by the first "thermocline" mode in the North to the second "saline" mode in the South. The Polar Front appears as a natural boundary between the two regions, where steric height variations are minimized. Since 2008, steric height has dropped close to the Antarctic continent, while subtropical waters farther north have mostly risen due to increased heat storage. While the dominant cause for the significant sea level rise south of 30S remains freshwater discharge from glaciers and ice sheets, thermohaline variability produces sizeable regional variability in the rate of sea level rise.

Formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) plays an essential role within Meridional Overturning Circulation and is widely accepted to be the engine of global Thermohaline Circulation (THC), which is sensitive to climate changes. Studying paleo conditions and changes of AABW distribution during warm and cold periods is fundamental to gain knowledge about its interaction and response to climate changes, which helps to understand recent and future changes of THC due to global warming.West of Prydz Bay, along MacRobertson Land Shelf area, a recent production of dense shelf water in the Cape Darnley Polynya and outflow as so-called Cape Darnley Bottom Water (CDBW) along the Wild Canyon has been recognized. CDBW contributes around 6-13% to the total circumpolar AABW. In order to understand the paleo conditions of AABW it is necessary to investigate the paleo-evolution of CDBW. To do this, we have studied the formation history of a 200 km long sediment drift (Darnley Drift herein) at the western flank of the Wild Canyon. We utilized more than 13.000 km of multi-channel seismic reflection data and lithological Data of ODP Site 1165. We characterized Darnley Drift to be a mixed turbiditic-contourite drift formed by an interplay of downslope and along-slope processes. During the Oligocene, turbiditic outflow dominated along the later formed Wild Canyon. An onset of CDBW can be inferred during the early Miocene, forming an asymmetric channel-levee system along the Wild Canyon. After the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum a major climate change occurred, resulting in a strong intensification of bottom currents and major growth of the drift with simultaneous areas of non-deposition and erosion. This was followed by a sharp reduction of sedimentation rates. Since the late Miocene the growth of Darnley Drift is further dominated by contourite bottom currents.

Numerical model studies have shown the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) to exhibit variability on near-inertial timescales, and also indicate a region of enhanced variability on the equator. We present an analysis of a set of integrations of a global configuration of a numerical ocean model, which show very large amplitude oscillations in the MOCs in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans confined to the equatorial region. The amplitude of these oscillations is proportional to the width of the ocean basin, typically about 100 (200) Sv in the Atlantic (Pacific). We show that these oscillations are driven by surface winds within 10°N/S of the equator, and their periods (typically 4-10 days) correspond to a small number of low mode equatorially trapped planetary waves. Furthermore, the oscillations can be well reproduced by idealised wind-driven simulations linearised about a state of rest. Zonally integrated linearised equations of motion are solved using vertical normal modes and equatorial meridional modes representing Yanai and inertia-gravity waves. Idealised simulations capture between 85% and 95% of the variance of matching time-series segments diagnosed from the NEMO integrations. Similar results are obtained for the corresponding modes in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Our results raise questions about the roles of inertia-gravity waves near the equator in the vertical transfer of heat and momentum and whether these transfers will be explicitly resolved by ocean models or need to be parametrised.

We analyzed hydrographic data from several autonomous oceanographic buoys within the MOSAiC Distributed Network together with regular CTD casts from the MOSAiC Central Observatory during the 2019/20 winter in the Amundsen Basin. These drifting platforms can yield as small as ~300 m (or 10 min) horizontal resolution, providing unprecedented perspectives for the (sub)mesoscale dynamics. Full-depth CTD profiles yielded the first baroclinic Rossby radii (R1) of ~7.5 km, which is consistent with previous studies based on climatology. Near-surface layers shallower than the halocline were not always mixed. Restratification was commonly observed, suggesting the onset of baroclinic instabilities and/or eddies emanating from the lateral fronts. A surface-layer eddy with estimated radius of ~5 km was fortuitously observed and coincident with the surrounding mixed geostrophic shear in the vertical, that is, oppositely-sloping isopycnals within the depth range of ~20 – 200 m. This structure is reminiscent of the Charney-type baroclinic instability, resulting from a difference in the sign of the vertical gradient of the interior quasigeostrophic potential vorticity and that of the surface buoyancy forcing. A reconstructed surface dynamic height field supports this argument, showing that submesoscale to mesoscale surface lateral buoyancy gradients are ubiquitous. This result implies that the study domain could be inherently unstable and prone to generate baroclinic eddies. We also observed that the slopes of the density horizontal wavenumber spectra changed at the halocline depths (~40 – 75 m) after a ~3-day storm event with peak speeds ~ 20 m s-1. We hypothesize that such change could be related to the Ekman pumping due to large ice drift (~50 cm s-1) and its resultant stress curl during the storm. Our analyses underline that thinning Arctic sea ice and increasing ice drift could together trigger more oceanic heat flux into the cold halocline by storms, further deteriorating winter ice growth in the Amundsen Basin.

We investigate the climate impact of reduced dust during the mid-Holocene using simulations with the IPSL model. We consider simulations where dust is either prescribed from an IPSL PI simulation or from CESM simulations (Albani et al., 2015). In addition, we also consider an extreme mid-Holocene case where dust is suppressed. We focus on the estimation of the dust radiative effects and the relative responses of the African and Indian monsoon, showing how local dust forcing or orography affect atmospheric temperature profiles, humidity and precipitation. The simulated mid-Holocene climate is statistically different in many regions compared to previous mid-Holocene simulations with the IPSL models. However, it translates to only minor improvements compared to palaeoclimate reconstructions, and the effect of dust has little impact on mid-Holocene model skill over large regions. Our analyses confirm the peculiar role of dust radiative effect over bright surfaces such as African deserts compared to other regions, brought about by the change of sign of the dust radiative effect at the top of atmosphere for high surface albedo. We also highlight a strong dependence of results on the dust pattern. In particular, the relative dust forcing between West Africa and the Middle East impacts the relative climate response between India and Africa and between Africa, the western tropical Atlantic and the Atlantic meridional circulation. It also affects the feedback on the Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation. Dust patterns should thus be better constrained to fully understand the changes in the dust cycle and forcing during the mid-Holocene, which also informs on the potential changes in key dust feedbacks in the future.

A decline in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength has been observed between 2004 and 2012 by the RAPID-MOCHA-WBTS (RAPID – Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array – Western Boundary Time Series, hereafter RAPID array) with this weakened state of the AMOC persisting until 2017. Climate model and paleo-oceanographic research suggests that the AMOC may have been declining for decades or even centuries before this; however direct observations are sparse prior to 2004, giving only “snapshots” of the overturning circulation. Previous studies have used linear models based on upper-layer temperature anomalies to extend AMOC estimates back in time; however these ignore changes in the deep circulation that are beginning to emerge in the observations of AMOC decline. Here we develop a higher-fidelity empirical model of AMOC variability based on RAPID data and associated physically with changes in thickness of the persistent upper, intermediate, and deep water masses at 26∘ N and associated transports. We applied historical hydrographic data to the empirical model to create an AMOC time series extending from 1981 to 2016. Increasing the resolution of the observed AMOC to approximately annual shows multi-annual variability in agreement with RAPID observations and shows that the downturn between 2008 and 2012 was the weakest AMOC since the mid-1980s. However, the time series shows no overall AMOC decline as indicated by other proxies and high-resolution climate models. Our results reinforce that adequately capturing changes to the deep circulation is key to detecting any anthropogenic climate-change-related AMOC decline.

How will extreme events due to human activities and climate change affect the oceanic thermohaline circulation is a key concern in climate predictions. The stability of the thermohaline circulation with respect to extreme events, such as fresh-water oscillations, greenhouse gas accumulations and collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, is examined using a conceptual stochastic Stommel two-compartment model. The extreme fluctuations are modeled by symmetric α-stable Lévy motions whose pathways are cádlág functions with at most a countable number of jumps. The mean first passage time, escape probability and stochastic basin of attraction are used to perform the stability analysis of on (off) equilibrium states. Our results argue that for model with weak fresh-water forcing strength, the greatest threat to the stability of the on-state represents noise with low jumps and higher frequency that can be seen as civilization-induced greenhouse gas accumulation. On the other hand, the off-state stability is more vulnerable to the agitations with moderate jumps and frequencies which can be interpreted as wind- driven circulations towards higher latitudes. Under the repercussion of stochastic noise, on to off transitions are more expected in the model if the fresh-water influx is strong. Moreover, transitions from one metastable state to another are equiprobable when the fresh-water input induces a symmetric potential well.

The strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) at 26∘ N has now been continuously measured by the RAPID array over the period April 2004–September 2018. This record provides unique insight into the variability of the large-scale ocean circulation, previously only measured by sporadic snapshots of basin-wide transport from hydrographic sections. The continuous measurements have unveiled striking variability on timescales of days to a decade, driven largely by wind forcing, contrasting with previous expectations about a slowly varying buoyancy-forced large-scale ocean circulation. However, these measurements were primarily observed during a warm state of the Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) which has been steadily declining since a peak in 2008–2010. In 2013–2015, a period of strong buoyancy forcing by the atmosphere drove intense water-mass transformation in the subpolar North Atlantic and provides a unique opportunity to investigate the response of the large-scale ocean circulation to buoyancy forcing. Modelling studies suggest that the AMOC in the subtropics responds to such events with an increase in overturning transport, after a lag of 3–9 years. At 45∘ N, observations suggest that the AMOC may already be increasing. Examining 26∘ N, we find that the AMOC is no longer weakening, though the recent transport is not above the long-term mean. Extending the record backwards in time at 26∘ N with ocean reanalysis from GloSea5, the transport fluctuations at 26∘ N are consistent with a 0- to 2-year lag from those at 45∘ N, albeit with lower magnitude. Given the short span of time and anticipated delays in the signal from the subpolar to subtropical gyres, it is not yet possible to determine whether the subtropical AMOC strength is recovering nor how the AMOC at 26∘ N responds to intense buoyancy forcing.

A new computationally efficient version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) is presented. This new version (here termed NorESM1-F) runs about 2.5 times faster (e.g., 90 model years per day on current hardware) than the version that contributed to the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison project (CMIP5), i.e., NorESM1-M, and is therefore particularly suitable for multimillennial paleoclimate and carbon cycle simulations or large ensemble simulations. The speed-up is primarily a result of using a prescribed atmosphere aerosol chemistry and a tripolar ocean–sea ice horizontal grid configuration that allows an increase of the ocean–sea ice component time steps. Ocean biogeochemistry can be activated for fully coupled and semi-coupled carbon cycle applications. This paper describes the model and evaluates its performance using observations and NorESM1-M as benchmarks. The evaluation emphasizes model stability, important large-scale features in the ocean and sea ice components, internal variability in the coupled system, and climate sensitivity. Simulation results from NorESM1-F in general agree well with observational estimates and show evident improvements over NorESM1-M, for example, in the strength of the meridional overturning circulation and sea ice simulation, both important metrics in simulating past and future climates. Whereas NorESM1-M showed a slight global cool bias in the upper oceans, NorESM1-F exhibits a global warm bias. In general, however, NorESM1-F has more similarities than dissimilarities compared to NorESM1-M, and some biases and deficiencies known in NorESM1-M remain.

The Barents Sea, located between the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, is one of the main pathways of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Changes in the water mass transformations in the Barents Sea potentially affect the thermohaline circulation through the alteration of the dense water formation process. In order to investigate such changes, we present here a seasonal atlas of the Barents Sea including both temperature and salinity for the period 1965–2016. The atlas is built as a compilation of datasets from the World Ocean Database, the Polar Branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and the Norwegian Polar Institute using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) tool. DIVA allows for a minimization of the expected error with respect to the true field. The atlas is used to provide a volumetric analysis of water mass characteristics and an estimation of the ocean heat and freshwater contents. The results show a recent “Atlantification” of the Barents Sea, that is a general increase in both temperature and salinity, while its density remains stable. The atlas is made freely accessible as user-friendly NetCDF files to encourage further research in the Barents Sea physics (https://doi.org/10.21335/NMDC-2058021735, Watelet et al., 2020).

Changes in ocean gateway configuration are known to induce basin-scale rearrangements in ocean characteristics throughout the Cenozoic. However, there is large uncertainty in the relative timing of the subsidence histories of ocean gateways in the northern high latitudes. By using a fully coupled General Circulation Model we investigate the salinity and temperature changes in response to the subsidence of two key ocean gateways in the northern high latitudes during early to middle Miocene. Deepening of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge causes a salinity increase and warming in the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean. While warming this realm, deep water formation takes place at lower temperatures due to a shift of the convection sites to north off Iceland. The associated deep ocean cooling and upwelling of deep waters to the Southern Ocean surface causes a cooling in the southern high latitudes. These characteristic impacts in response to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge deepening are independent of the Fram Strait state. Subsidence of the Fram Strait for a deep Greenland-Scotland Ridge causes less pronounced warming and salinity increase in the Nordic Seas. A stronger salinity increase is detected in the Arctic while temperatures remain unaltered, which further increases the density of the North Atlantic Deep Water. This causes an enhanced contribution of North Atlantic Deep Water to the abyssal ocean and on the expense of the colder southern source water component. These relative changes largely counteract each other and cause little warming in the upwelling regions of the Southern Ocean.

Today in the North Pacific only intermediate water forms because of a strong halocline, but Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation (PMOC) may have existed in the past. The mid-Pliocene warm period (3.264-3.025 Ma) is a time of sustained warmth where atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were similar to today and the northern hemisphere was relatively ice free – making it a pseudo-analogue for future climate change. North Pacific sedimentological and climate modeling evidence suggests a PMOC formed during this time. To determine the spatial extent of a PMOC during the mid-Pliocene warm period, we constructed a depth transect of sites between 2400 to 3400 m water depth on Shatsky Rise by measuring stable isotopes of Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi. We compare these new results with previously published records and calculate anomalies using the OC3 water column and core-top data products. The δ13C spatial pattern is consistent with a modest PMOC of intermediate depth (core ~2000 m) extending to the equator during the mid-Pliocene warm period. Ventilation of the North Pacific by a PMOC has broad implications for deep ocean carbon storage as the North Pacific contains the oldest, carbon-rich waters today. Future work will include minor and trace element analyses to determine the temperature and carbon characteristics of the PMOC water mass and comparisons with PlioMIP modeling outputs.

Submarine hydrothermal systems sustain unique ecosystems, affect global-scale biogeochemical ocean cycles, and mobilize metals from the oceanic crust to form volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Quantifying these processes requires linking seafloor observations to physico-chemical processes at depth and this is where numerical models of hydrothermal circulation can be particularly useful. One region where sufficient data is available to establish such a link is the East Pacific Rise (EPR) at 9°N, where vent fluid salinity and temperature have been repeatedly measured over a long time period. Here, large salinity and temperature changes of vents at the axial graben have been correlated with diking events and extrusive lava flows. Salinity changes imply the phase separation of seawater into a high-salinity brine and a low-salinity vapor phase. The intrusion of a new dike is likely to result in a characteristic salinity signal over several years: first the low salinity vapor phase rises and later the brine phase appears along with a decreasing vent temperature. These short-term salinity variations are super-imposed on the background salinity signal, which is modulated by phase separation phenomena on top of the axial magma lens. From these variations, numerical models can help to infer sub-surface properties and processes such as permeability, background flow rates, and brine retention as well as mobilization – if the employed model can resolve the complexity of phase separation. We here present a novel numerical model for saltwater hydrothermal systems, which uses the Finite Volume Method on unstructured meshes and the Newton-Raphson Method for solving the coupled equations. We use this new 2-D model to investigate a setup that mimics hydrothermal convection on top of the axial magma lens, which is then perturbed by a dike intrusion. In a comprehensive suite of model runs, we have identified the key controls on the time evolution of vent fluid salinity following the diking event. Based on these insights, we can reproduce time-series data from the EPR at 9°N and infer likely ranges of rock properties for the oceanic crust layer 2B. Our work shows how useful data integration into numerical hydrothermal models is. Unfortunately, data collection like mapping of magmatic events, continuous measurements of hydrothermal vent fluids or crustal drilling are very expensive and technically challenging. Here global and transdisciplinary collaboration would be very useful for achieving data with maximal benefit for all disciplines. Compared to the EPR the Mid-Atlantic Ridge shows a higher geological complexity, due to its lower spreading rate, and a higher diversity of vent fluid chemistry, but less continuous data is available, which hampers research using numerical models here for now. Therefore, numerical case studies at EPR serve as important validity checks for our numerical model and indicate where it has to be enhanced for quantifying processes related to hydrothermal systems at Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Thermohaline staircases are stepped structures in the temperature and salinity stratification that result from double diffusive processes. In the open ocean, double diffusive processes enhance the downgradient diapycnal heat transfer compared to turbulent mixing. However, in combination with salinity effects, the resulting buoyancy flux within the thermohaline staircases is counter gradient. This vertical density transport strengthens the stratification and, consequently, affects the density of the water masses above and below the staircase layer. Although 44 percent of the world’s oceans is susceptible to double diffusion and thermohaline staircases are ubiquitous in these regions, the impact of double diffusion on diapycnal heat transfer and on water mass transformation has not been quantified yet. Here, we analyse a dataset of Argo float profiles to obtain a global overview of the occurrence of thermohaline staircases and to estimate their impact on diapycnal heat transfer and water mass transformation. Several regions with a high staircase occurrence are identified. Besides the well-known regions in the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the subtropical Atlantic Ocean, our analysis reveals a new staircase region in the Indian Ocean. Using this global overview, we estimate, for the first time, the contribution of downgradient diapycnal heat transfer by the staircases. It appears that this contribution is very low compared to the dissipation required to maintain the observed temperature stratification. However, each staircase region can potentially impact the global circulation by affecting the density of the water masses above and below. In particular, the staircase region in the Indian Ocean overlies the waters of the Tasman Leakage. These waters flow westward from Australia towards the Agulhas region and affect the properties of waters entering the Atlantic Ocean. This implies that the vertical flux of salt into the Tasman Leakage waters induced by the presence of thermohaline staircases above can impact the salt transport into the Atlantic Ocean, which in turn is expected to impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

Changes in the geometry of ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) are crucial in controlling changes of climate and the carbon inventory of the atmosphere. However, the accurate timing and global correlation of short-term glacial-to-deglacial changes in the MOC of different ocean basins still present a major challenge. The suite of jumps and plateaus in the record of past atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) concentrations offers a unique opportunity of age control and global correlation. The upper and lower boundaries of atmospheric 14C plateaus in the 14C records of both tree rings and Lake Suigetsu (age calibrated on the basis of Hulu U/Th model ages)­ provide a detailed stratigraphic ’rung ladder’ of ~30 age tie points from 29 to 10 ka that can be used for dating of planktic 14C records and an age correlation, by now employed to ~20 sediment cores obtained from key locations of MOC all over the global ocean. The age difference between paired planktic and benthic 14C ages provides an estimate of the ventilation age of deep waters since their last contact with the atmosphere. 14C ventilation ages of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) deep waters reveal coeval opposed geometries of Atlantic and Pacific MOC. Similar to today, LGM Atlantic deep-water formation went along with an estuarine inflow of old abyssal waters from the Southern Ocean up to the northern North Pacific and an outflow of upper deep waters. Vice versa, low 14C ventilation ages of N.E. Pacific deep waters suggest a reversed, anti-estuarine MOC during early Heinrich Stadial 1 with a ~1500 year-long flushing of the deep North Pacific up to the South China Sea, when the North Atlantic was marked by an estuarine circulation geometry, gradually starting near 19 ka. Elevated 14C ventilation ages of LGM deep waters reflect a major drawdown of atmospheric carbon. Subsequent massive age drops accompanying changes in MOC reflect major events of carbon release to the atmosphere as recorded in Antarctic ice cores. These contemporaneous features of the MOC and the carbon cycle offer a great test case for comparison with model simulation.

Knowledge of the impact of past climate warming on Greenland Ice Sheet stability is an important issue for assessing thresholds that are critical for a potential ice sheet collapse. For the late Holocene, evidence has recently been found of a so-called 4.2 ka BP event(1) including a prominent warming spike in several ice core records from Greenland and Canada (Agassiz). Also lake records from both Northwest(2) and South Greenland(3) support pronounced summer warming during that time. After c. 4.0 ka BP NW Greenland July air temperature dropped by about 3o C. Coeval with this exceptional atmospheric warming anomaly over northern Canada and parts of Greenland, abrupt cooling and freshening affected the N-Atlantic subpolar gyre where Labrador Sea deep convection ceased(4). Northern N-Atlantic climate generally deteriorated. With our contribution we present Holocene sub-bottom profiling and sedimentary shelf and fjord records from Southwest Greenland and Disko Bay that indicate exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet melting 4.4-4.0 ka BP at a rate and magnitude not recorded since early Holocene deglaciation. Extremely strong melt water discharge resulted in erosion of fjord sediments(5) and local deposition of up to several meters thick meltwater sediment on the shelf(6-8). Timing of this melting event corresponds to a significant anomaly in hydrographic parameters of the Labrador Current off Newfoundland(9,10), which is concluded to have resulted in thermohaline perturbation of the N-Atlantic Subpolar gyre. (1) Weiss, H. 2019. Clim Past doi:10.5194/cp-2018-162-RC2 (2) McFarlin, J.M. et al. 2018. PNAS doi:10.1073/pnas.1720420115 (3) Andresen, C.S. et al. 2004. J Quat Sci 19(8) doi:10.1002/jqs.886 (4) Klus, A. et al. 2018. Clim Past doi:10.5194/cp-14-1165-2018 (5) Ren, J. et al. 2009. Mar Micropal doi:10.1016/j.marmicro.2008.12.003 (6) Hygom Jacobsen, S. 2019. Master Thesis Aarhus Univ, Dept. of Geoscience, pp105 (7) Schneider, R. 2015. Cruise Rep epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37062/131/msm-44-46-expeditionsheft.pdf (8) Kuijpers, A. et al. 2001. Geol. Greenland Surv Bull 189, 41-47 (9) Solignac, S. et al. 2011. The Holocene, doi: 10.1177/0959683610385720 (10) Orme, L. et al 2019. The Holocene (submitted)

This study describes an important pathway of the thermohaline conveyor belt circulation and connects the geographical distribution of water masses with water mass transformation. In the Southern Ocean, cold and fresh water up-wells to the surface and returns northward, entering the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean. This reflects an important part of the thermohaline conveyor belt circulation. As the water flows northward, it changes temperature and salinity, and thus density. These changes can be caused either by internal mixing or air-sea interactions. In this study, Lagrangian trajectories are used to follow the pathway from Drake Passage to the warm Pacific Ocean. Trajectories are started in the Drake Passage, and are ended when they either reach 25$^\circ$C or return to the Drake Passage. The trajectories entering the Pacific Ocean follow the Antarctic circumpolar current and separate then into two pathways. The first enters the Pacific Ocean close to the South American coast and flows along the coast until it reaches 25$^\circ$C close to the equator. The second pathway, which corresponds to most of the total volume transport entering the Pacific, are subducted around 40$^\circ$S. The water then moves westward until it reaches Australia where it turns northward and ultimately joins the equatorial undercurrent. Along these two pathways, the water changes temperature and salinity, going from cold and fresh to warm and saline. Preliminary results indicate that the water mass transformation for the first pathway are due to air-sea interactions, and internal mixing for the second.

The Lofoten Basin is one of the most dynamically unstable regions of the North Atlantic and represents a ‘hot spot’ of the mesoscale eddy activity in the Nordic Seas. A quasi-stationary, deep, anticyclonic eddy is located in the central part of the basin. One of the key features of the Lofoten Basin circulation is a separation of eddies from the main branch of Norwegian current and their westward propagation towards the central part of the basin. Because of these processes, warm and saline Atlantic waters are transported to the deeper part of the basin. Understanding the physical processes responsible for the water mass transformations in this area is of particular interest in order to apprehend the climate of the region.In this study we obtain three-dimensional structures of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies for the LB region by combining the observational data set covering the 2000-2017 period with satellite altimetry data. The results reveal that significant eddy-induced anomalies are concentrated within a distance of 1 radius of the composite AE and CE and extend vertically to the depth of 1000 m. The core of the composite AE is located in the 200-400 m while the composite CE has a double-core structure with the maximum anomalies centered in the upper layer above 100 m and a negative peak located at 700 m. The difference in the structure of AE and CE is referred to the upwelling and downwelling processes in the AEs and CEs respectively.The study also provides an estimation of the depth-integrated heat and salt transport as well as zonal volume eddy-induced transport. Each AE (CE) generates volume transport of 1.98 Sv (1.87 Sv), heat transport of 2.9*1014 W (-8.3*104 W) and salt transport of 2.3*106 kg/s (-1.6*1013 kg/s). Zonal eddy-induced transport has a general westward propagation direction reaching maximum of 0.6 Sv in the north-eastern part of the study area. The northward transport takes place predominantly in the southern and eastern parts of the study region and has significantly smaller magnitude. This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation [project № 18-17-00027]

This paper investigates the impact of the equatorial wind stress on the Indian Ocean Shallow Meridional Overturning Circulation (SMOC) during the India Ocean Dipole (IOD) mature phase. The results show that the equatorial zonal wind stress directly drives the meridional motion of seawater at the upper level. In normal years, the wind stress in the Indian Ocean is easterly between 30°S-0°and the westerly wind is between 0°and 30°N, which contributes to a southward Ekman transport at the upper level to form the climatological SMOC. During the years of positive IOD events, abnormal easterly wind near the equator, accompanying with the cold sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) along the coast of Sumatra and Java and the warm SSTA along the coast of East Africa, brings southward Ekman transport south of the equator while northward Ekman transport north of the equator. This leads the seawaters moving away from the equator and hence upwelling near the equator as a consequence, to form a pair of small circulation cell symmetric about the equator.

The presented study estimates salt dissolution caused by groundwater around a salt diapir in the Transylvanian Basin, which is facing land-collapse hazards related to historic salt mining activities. Because the amount of salt dissolution is controlled by the concentration gradients and fluxes near vulnerable areas of the salt dome, specific attention has been given to hydrogeological boundary conditions. They include the hydraulic role of possible more permeable fault zones along the salt dome, and the potential access to the salt diapir of over-pressurized subsaturated groundwater within regional scale sandstone layers. A structural three-dimensional (3D) model of the salt diapir, the adjacent basin sediments, and the mining galleries was developed based on existing maps, borehole data, own field observations, and geological publications of the Transylvanian Basin. The salt dissolution potential was simulated with 2D vertical thermohaline flow and transport model scenarios along the southeastern flank of the diapir. Results showed that the following factors increase the salt dissolution capacity along the upper 180 m of the diapir: (1) the presence of more permeable Quaternary alluvial sediments in connection with a fault zone of higher permeability along the diapir, and (2) the presence of more permeable sandstone units within the Miocene sediments in the east of the diapir, which provide freshwater access to the upper parts of the diapir. Thermohaline simulation with viscosity variation of the fluid, instead of a constant viscosity, influences the resulting salt fluxes by up to 50% within studied temperature ranges of 10 to 60°C in the model domain. The range of theoretical dissolution rates along the upper 180 m of the diapir supports the hypothesis that cavern collapse is more likely to occur where cavern side walls have already been mined to almost no remaining side walls of rock salt, which is the case in the southeastern part of the diapir. A past land collapse from 2010, which formed a 70-90 m wide saline lake, has occurred in this area southeast of the diapir appearing to be the more vulnerable to land collapse.Zechner, E., Dresmann, H., Mocuţa, M., Danchiv, A., Huggenberger, P., Scheidler, S., Wiesmeier, S., Popa, I., Zlibut, A. (2019): Salt dissolution potential estimated from two-dimensional vertical thermohaline flow and transport modeling along a Transylvanian salt diapir, Romania, Hydrogeol. J., 27, 1245-1256, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-018-1912-1.

This article reports the results of three field campaigns conducted in Lake Issyk-Kul in 2015, 2016, and 2017. During the campaigns, CTD profiling and water sampling were performed at 34 locations all over the lake. A total of 75 CTD profiles were obtained. Some biogeochemical and thermohaline parameters at the lake surface were also mapped at high horizontal resolution along the ship's track. In addition, thermistor chains were deployed at three mooring stations in the eastern littoral region of the lake, yielding 147-day-long records of temperature data. The measurements revealed that – while the thermal state of the active layer, as well as some biogeochemical characteristics, were subject to significant interannual variability mediated by atmospheric forcing – the haline structure of the entire lake was remarkably stable at the interannual scale. Our data do not confirm the reports of progressive warming of the deep Issyk-Kul waters as suggested in some previous publications. However, they do indicate a positive trend of salinity in the lake's interior over the last 3 decades. A noteworthy newly found feature is a weak but persistent salinity maximum below the thermocline at a depth of 70–120 m, from where salinity slightly decreased downwards. The data from the moored thermistor chains support the previously published hypothesis about the significant role of the submerged ancient riverbeds on the eastern shelf in advecting littoral waters into the deep portion of the lake during differential cooling period. We hypothesize that the less saline littoral water penetrating into the deep layers due to this mechanism is responsible for the abovementioned features of salinity profile, and we substantiate this hypothesis by estimates based on simple model assumptions.

To study the influence of basal melting of the Ross Ice Shelf (BMRIS) on the Southern Ocean (ocean southward of 35∘ S) in quasi-equilibrium, numerical experiments with and without the BMRIS effect were performed using a global ocean–sea ice–ice shelf coupled model. In both experiments, the model started from a state of quasi-equilibrium ocean and was integrated for 500 years forced by CORE (Coordinated Ocean-ice Reference Experiment) normal-year atmospheric fields. The simulation results of the last 100 years were analyzed. The melt rate averaged over the entire Ross Ice Shelf is 0.25 m a−1, which is associated with a freshwater flux of 3.15 mSv (1 mSv = 103 m3 s−1). The extra freshwater flux decreases the salinity in the region from 1500 m depth to the sea floor in the southern Pacific and Indian oceans, with a maximum difference of nearly 0.005 PSU in the Pacific Ocean. Conversely, the effect of concurrent heat flux is mainly confined to the middle depth layer (approximately 1500 to 3000 m). The decreased density due to the BMRIS effect, together with the influence of ocean topography, creates local differences in circulation in the Ross Sea and nearby waters. Through advection by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the flux difference from BMRIS gives rise to an increase of sea ice thickness and sea ice concentration in the Ross Sea adjacent to the coast and ocean water to the east. Warm advection and accumulation of warm water associated with differences in local circulation decrease sea ice concentration on the margins of sea ice cover adjacent to open water in the Ross Sea in September. The decreased water density weakens the subpolar cell as well as the lower cell in the global residual meridional overturning circulation (MOC). Moreover, we observe accompanying reduced southward meridional heat transport at most latitudes of the Southern Ocean.

Internal hydraulic control, which occurs when stratified water masses are forced through an abrupt constriction, plays an enormous role in nature on both large and regional scales with respect to dynamics, circulation, and water mass formation. Despite a growing literature on this subject surprisingly few direct observations have been made that conclusively show the existence of and the circumstances related to internal hydraulic control in nature. In this study we present observations from the Little Belt, Denmark, one of three narrow straits connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The observations (comprised primarily of along-strait, detailed transects of salinity and temperature; continuous observations of flow velocity, salinity, and temperature at a permanent station; and numerous vertical profiles of salinity, temperature, fluorescence, and flow velocity in various locations) show that internal hydraulic control is a frequently occurring phenomenon in the Little Belt. The observations, which are limited to south-going flows of approximately two-layered water masses, show that internal hydraulic control may take either of two configurations, i.e. the lower or the upper layer being the active, accelerating one. This is connected to the depth of the pycnocline on the upstream side and the topography, which is both deepening and contracting toward the narrow part of the Little Belt. The existence of two possible flow configurations is known from theoretical and laboratory studies, but we believe that this has never been observed in nature and reported before. The water masses formed by the intense mixing, which is tightly connected with the presence of control, may be found far downstream of the point of control. The observations show that these particular water masses are associated with chlorophyll concentrations that are considerably higher than in adjacent water masses, showing that control has a considerable influence on the primary production and hence the ecosystem in the area.

DOI: não consta, por isso foi disponibilizado o link de acesso. Marine Isotope Stage 31 (MIS31, between 1085 and 1055 ka) was characterized by higher extratropical air temperatures and a substantial recession of polar glaciers compared to today. Paleoreconstructions and model simulations have increased the understanding of the MIS31 interval, but questions remain regarding the role of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in modifying the climate associated with the variations in Earth's orbital parameters. Multi-century coupled climate simulations, with the astronomical configuration of the MIS31 and modified West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) topography, show an increase in the thermohaline flux and northward oceanic heat transport (OHT) in the Pacific Ocean. These oceanic changes are driven by anomalous atmospheric circulation and increased surface salinity in concert with a stronger meridional overturning circulation (MOC). The intensified northward OHT is responsible for up to 85 % of the global OHT anomalies and contributes to the overall reduction in sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) due to Earth's astronomical configuration. The relative contributions of the Atlantic Ocean to global OHT and MOC anomalies are minor compared to those of the Pacific. However, sea ice changes are remarkable, highlighted by decreased (increased) cover in the Ross (Weddell) Sea but widespread reductions in sea ice across the NH.

Scientific interest in the sub-polar gyre of the North Atlantic Ocean has increased in recent years. The sub-polar gyre has contracted and weakened, and changes in circulation pathways have been linked to changes in marine ecosystem productivity. To aid fisheries and environmental scientists, we present here a time series of the Sub-Polar Gyre Index (SPG-I) based on monthly mean maps of sea surface height. The established definition of the SPG-I is applied, and the first EOF (empirical orthogonal function) and PC (principal component) are presented. Sensitivity to the spatial domain and time series length are explored but found not to be important factors in terms of the SPG-I's interpretation. Our time series compares well with indices presented previously. The SPG-I time series is freely available online (http://dx.doi.org/10.7489/1806-1), and we invite the community to access, apply, and publish studies using this index time series.

Data of CTD transects across continental slope of the Eurasian Basin and the St. Anna Trough performed during NABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observing System) project in 2003–2015 are used to assess transport and propagation features of the Atlantic Water (AW) in the Arctic Ocean. Estimates of θ-S indices and volume flow rate of the current carrying the AW in the Eurasian Basin were obtained. The assessments were based on the analysis of CTD data including 33 sections in the Eurasian Basin, 4 transects in the St. Anna Trough and 2 transects in the Makarov Basin; additionally a CTD transect of the PolarStern-1996 expedition (PS-96) was considered. Using spatial distributions of temperature, salinity, and density on the transects and applying θ-S analysis, the variability of thermohaline pattern on the AW pathway along the slope of Eurasian Basin was investigated. The Fram Strait branch of the Atlantic Water (FSBW) was satisfactorily identified on all transects, including two transects in the Makarov Basin (along 159° E), while the сold waters, which can be associated with the influence of the Barents Sea branch of the Atlantic water (BSBW), on the transects along 126° E, 142° E and 159° E, were observed in the depth range below 800 m and had a negligible effect on the spatial structure of isopycnic surfaces. Special attention was paid to the variability of the volume flow rate of the AW propagating along the continental slope of the Eurasian Basin. The geostrophic volume flow rate was calculated using the dynamic method. An interpretation of the spatial and temporal variability of hydrological parameters characterizing the flow of the AW in the Eurasian Basin is presented. The geostrophic volume flow rate decreases significantly farther away from the areas of the AW inflow to the Eurasian Basin. Thus, the geostrophic estimate of the volume rate for the AW flow in the Makarov Basin at 159° E was found to be more than an order of magnitude smaller than the estimates of the volume flow rate in the Eurasian Basin, implying that the major part of the AW entering the Arctic Ocean circulates cyclonically within the Nansen and Amundsen Basins. There is an absolute maximum of θmax (AW core temperature) in 2006–2008 time series and a maximum in 2013, but only at 103° E. Salinity S(θmax) (AW core salinity) time series display an increase of the AW salinity in 2006–2008 and 2013 (at 103° E) that can be referred to as a AW salinization in the early 2000-ies. The maxima of θmax and S(θmax) in 2006–2008 and 2013 were accompanied by the volume flow rate highs. Additionally the time average volume rates were calculated for the FSBW flow (in the longitude range 31–92° E), for the BSBW flow in the St. Anna Trough and for a combined FSBW and BSBW flow in longitude range 94–107° E. A detailed discussion of the results is presented.

The oceanic sink of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important part of the global carbon budget. Understanding uncertainties in the calculation of this net flux into the ocean is crucial for climate research. One of the sources of the uncertainty within this calculation is the parameterization chosen for the CO2 gas-transfer velocity. We used a recently developed software toolbox, called the FluxEngine (Shutler et al., 2016), to estimate the monthly air–sea CO2 fluxes for the extratropical North Atlantic Ocean, including the European Arctic, and for the global ocean using several published quadratic and cubic wind speed parameterizations of the gas-transfer velocity. The aim of the study is to constrain the uncertainty caused by the choice of parameterization in the North Atlantic Ocean. This region is a large oceanic sink of CO2, and it is also a region characterized by strong winds, especially in winter but with good in situ data coverage. We show that the uncertainty in the parameterization is smaller in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic than in the global ocean. It is as little as 5 % in the North Atlantic and 4 % in the European Arctic, in comparison to 9 % for the global ocean when restricted to parameterizations with quadratic wind dependence. This uncertainty becomes 46, 44, and 65 %, respectively, when all parameterizations are considered. We suggest that this smaller uncertainty (5 and 4 %) is caused by a combination of higher than global average wind speeds in the North Atlantic (> 7 ms−1) and lack of any seasonal changes in the direction of the flux direction within most of the region. We also compare the impact of using two different in situ pCO2 data sets (Takahashi et al. (2009) and Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) v1.5 and v2.0, for the flux calculation. The annual fluxes using the two data sets differ by 8 % in the North Atlantic and 19 % in the European Arctic. The seasonal fluxes in the Arctic computed from the two data sets disagree with each other possibly due to insufficient spatial and temporal data coverage, especially in winter.

An extensive compilation of published neodymium (Nd) concentrations and isotopic compositions (Nd IC) was realized in order to establish a new database and a map (using a high-resolution geological map of the area) of the distribution of these parameters for all the Mediterranean margins. Data were extracted from different kinds of samples: river solid discharge deposited on the shelf, sedimentary material collected on the margin or geological material outcropping above or close to a margin. Additional analyses of surface sediments were done in order to improve this data set in key areas (e.g. Sicilian strait). The Mediterranean margin Nd isotopic signatures vary from non-radiogenic values around the Gulf of Lion, (εNd values ∼ −11) to radiogenic values around the Aegean and the Levantine sub-basins up to +6. Using a high-resolution regional oceanic model (1/12° of horizontal-resolution), εNd distribution was simulated for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. The high resolution of the model provides a unique opportunity to represent a realistic thermohaline circulation in the basin and thus apprehend the processes governing the Nd isotope distribution in the marine environment. Results are consistent with the preceding conclusions on boundary exchange (BE) as an important process in the Nd oceanic cycle. Nevertheless this approach simulates a too-radiogenic value in the Mediterranean Sea; this bias will likely be corrected once the dust and river inputs will be included in the model. This work highlights that a significant interannual variability of εNd distribution in seawater could occur. In particular, important hydrological events such as the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT), associated with deep water formed in the Aegean sub-basin, could induce a shift in εNd at deep/intermediate depths that could be noticeable in the eastern part of the basin. This underlines that the temporal and geographical variations of εNd could represent an interesting insight of Nd as tracer of the Mediterranean Sea circulation, in particular in the context of palaeo-oceanographic applications.

Ferrybox measurements have been carried out between Tallinn and Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea) on a regular basis since 1997. The system measures autonomously water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a fluorescence and turbidity and takes water samples for further analyses at a predefined time interval. We aimed to show how the Ferrybox technology could be used to study the coastal upwelling events in the Gulf of Finland. Based on the introduced upwelling index and related criteria, 33 coastal upwelling events were identified in May–September 2007–2013. The number of events, as well as the frequency of their occurrence and intensity expressed as a sum of daily average temperature deviations in the 20 km wide coastal area, were almost equal near the northern and southern coasts. Nevertheless, the wind impulse, which was needed to generate upwelling events of similar intensity, differed between the northern and southern coastal areas. It is suggested that the general thermohaline structure adapted to the prevailing forcing and the estuarine character of the basin weaken the upwelling created by the westerly to southwesterly (up-estuary) winds and strengthen the upwelling created by the easterly to northeasterly (down-estuary) winds. Two types of upwelling events were identified – one characterized by a strong temperature front and the other revealing gradual decrease in temperature from the open sea to the coastal area, with maximum temperature deviation close to the shore.

Paleoclimate proxy data span seasonal to millennial timescales, and Earth's climate system has both high- and low-frequency components. Yet it is currently unclear how best to incorporate multiple timescales of proxy data into a single reconstruction framework and to also capture both high- and low-frequency components of reconstructed variables. Here we present a data assimilation approach that can explicitly incorporate proxy data at arbitrary timescales. The principal advantage of using such an approach is that it allows much more proxy data to inform a climate reconstruction, though there can be additional benefits. Through a series of offline data-assimilation-based pseudoproxy experiments, we find that atmosphere–ocean states are most skillfully reconstructed by incorporating proxies across multiple timescales compared to using proxies at short (annual) or long (∼ decadal) timescales alone. Additionally, reconstructions that incorporate long-timescale pseudoproxies improve the low-frequency components of the reconstructions relative to using only high-resolution pseudoproxies. We argue that this is because time averaging high-resolution observations improves their covariance relationship with the slowly varying components of the coupled-climate system, which the data assimilation algorithm can exploit. These results are consistent across the climate models considered, despite the model variables having very different spectral characteristics. Our results also suggest that it may be possible to reconstruct features of the oceanic meridional overturning circulation based on atmospheric surface temperature proxies, though here we find such reconstructions lack spectral power over a broad range of frequencies.

We examine near-inertial variability of the meridional overturning circulation in the South China Sea (SCSMOC) using a global 1 / 12° ocean reanalysis. Based on wavelet analysis and power spectrum, we suggest that deep SCSMOC has a significant near-inertial band. The maximum amplitude of the near-inertial signal in the SCSMOC is nearly 4 Sv. The spatial structure of the signal features regularly alternating counterclockwise and clockwise overturning cells. It is also found that the near-inertial signal of SCSMOC mainly originates from the region near the Luzon Strait and propagates equatorward at a speed of 1–3 m s−1. Further analyses suggest that the near-inertial signal in the SCSMOC is triggered by high-frequency wind variability near the Luzon Strait, where geostrophic shear always exists due to Kuroshio intrusion.

We have developed and employed an Earth system model to explore the forcings of atmospheric pCO2 change and the chemical and isotopic evolution of seawater over the last glacial cycle. Concentrations of dissolved phosphorus (DP), reactive nitrogen, molecular oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), 13C-DIC, and 14C-DIC were calculated for 24 ocean boxes. The bi-directional water fluxes between these model boxes were derived from a 3-D circulation field of the modern ocean (Opa 8.2, NEMO) and tuned such that tracer distributions calculated by the box model were consistent with observational data from the modern ocean. To model the last 130 kyr, we employed records of past changes in sea-level, ocean circulation, and dust deposition. According to the model, about half of the glacial pCO2 drawdown may be attributed to marine regressions. The glacial sea-level low-stands implied steepened ocean margins, a reduced burial of particulate organic carbon, phosphorus, and neritic carbonate at the margin seafloor, a decline in benthic denitrification, and enhanced weathering of emerged shelf sediments. In turn, low-stands led to a distinct rise in the standing stocks of DIC, TA, and nutrients in the global ocean, promoted the glacial sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in the ocean, and added 13C- and 14C-depleted DIC to the ocean as recorded in benthic foraminifera signals. The other half of the glacial drop in pCO2 was linked to inferred shoaling of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and more efficient utilization of nutrients in the Southern Ocean. The diminished ventilation of deep water in the glacial Atlantic and Southern Ocean led to significant 14C depletions with respect to the atmosphere. According to our model, the deglacial rapid and stepwise rise in atmospheric pCO2 was induced by upwelling both in the Southern Ocean and subarctic North Pacific and promoted by a drop in nutrient utilization in the Southern Ocean. The deglacial sea-level rise led to a gradual decline in nutrient, DIC, and TA stocks, a slow change due to the large size and extended residence times of dissolved chemical species in the ocean. Thus, the rapid deglacial rise in pCO2 can be explained by fast changes in ocean dynamics and nutrient utilization whereas the gradual pCO2 rise over the Holocene may be linked to the slow drop in nutrient and TA stocks that continued to promote an ongoing CO2 transfer from the ocean into the atmosphere.

The northward flow of the upper limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is fed by waters entering the South Atlantic from the Indian Ocean mainly via the Agulhas Current (AC) system and by waters entering from the Pacific through Drake Passage (DP), commonly referred to as the warm and cold water routes, respectively. However, there is no final consensus on the relative importance of these two routes for the upper limb’s volume transport and thermohaline properties. In this study we revisited the AC and DP contributions by performing Lagrangian analyzes between the two source regions and the North Brazil Current (NBC) at 6° S in a realistically forced high-resolution (1/20°) ocean model. Our results agree with the prevailing conception that the AC contribution is the major source for the upper limb transport of the AMOC. However, they also suggest a non-negligible DP contribution of at least 40 %, which is substantially higher than estimates from previous Lagrangian studies with coarser resolution models, but now better matches estimates from Lagrangian observations. Moreover, idealized analyzes of decadal changes in the DP and AC contributions indicate that the ongoing increase in Agulhas leakage indeed may have evoked an increase in the AC contribution to the upper limb of the AMOC while the DP contribution decreased. In terms of thermohaline properties, our study highlights that the AC and DP contributions cannot be unambiguously distinguished by their temperature, as the commonly adopted terminology may imply, but rather by their salinity when entering the South Atlantic. During their transit towards the NBC the bulk of DP waters experiences a net density loss through a net warming, whereas the bulk of AC waters experiences a slight net density gain through a net increase in salinity. Notably, these density changes are nearly completely captured by those Lagrangian particle trajectories that reach the surface mixed layer at least once during their transit, which amount to 66 % and 49 % for DP and AC waters, respectively. This implies that more than half of the water masses supplying the upper limb of the AMOC are actually formed within the South Atlantic, and do not get their characteristic properties in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The decadal variability of the Caspian Sea thermohaline properties is investigated by means of a high-resolution ocean general circulation model including sea ice thermodynamics and air-sea interaction, forced by prescribed realistic atmospheric conditions and riverine runoff. The model describes synoptic, seasonal and climatic variations of the sea thermohaline structure, water balance and level height. A reconstruction experiment was conducted for the period of 1961–2001, covering a major regime shift in the global climate of 1976–1978, which allows to investigate the Caspian Sea response to such significant episodes of climate change. The long-term trends in the sea circulation patterns are considered with an assessment of the influence of model error accumulation.

The Arctic Mediterranean (AM) is the collective name for the Arctic Ocean, the Nordic Seas, and their adjacent shelf seas. Water enters into this region through the Bering Strait (Pacific inflow) and through the passages across the Greenland–Scotland Ridge (Atlantic inflow) and is modified within the AM. The modified waters leave the AM in several flow branches which are grouped into two different categories: (1) overflow of dense water through the deep passages across the Greenland–Scotland Ridge, and (2) outflow of light water – here termed surface outflow – on both sides of Greenland. These exchanges transport heat and salt into and out of the AM and are important for conditions in the AM. They are also part of the global ocean circulation and climate system. Attempts to quantify the transports by various methods have been made for many years, but only recently the observational coverage has become sufficiently complete to allow an integrated assessment of the AM exchanges based solely on observations. In this study, we focus on the transport of water and have collected data on volume transport for as many AM-exchange branches as possible between 1993 and 2015. The total AM import (oceanic inflows plus freshwater) is found to be 9.1 Sv (sverdrup, 1 Sv =106 m3 s−1) with an estimated uncertainty of 0.7 Sv and has the amplitude of the seasonal variation close to 1 Sv and maximum import in October. Roughly one-third of the imported water leaves the AM as surface outflow with the remaining two-thirds leaving as overflow. The overflow water is mainly produced from modified Atlantic inflow and around 70 % of the total Atlantic inflow is converted into overflow, indicating a strong coupling between these two exchanges. The surface outflow is fed from the Pacific inflow and freshwater (runoff and precipitation), but is still approximately two-thirds of modified Atlantic water. For the inflow branches and the two main overflow branches (Denmark Strait and Faroe Bank Channel), systematic monitoring of volume transport has been established since the mid-1990s, and this enables us to estimate trends for the AM exchanges as a whole. At the 95 % confidence level, only the inflow of Pacific water through the Bering Strait showed a statistically significant trend, which was positive. Both the total AM inflow and the combined transport of the two main overflow branches also showed trends consistent with strengthening, but they were not statistically significant. They do suggest, however, that any significant weakening of these flows during the last two decades is unlikely and the overall message is that the AM exchanges remained remarkably stable in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s. The overflows are the densest source water for the deep limb of the North Atlantic part of the meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), and this conclusion argues that the reported weakening of the AMOC was not due to overflow weakening or reduced overturning in the AM. Although the combined data set has made it possible to establish a consistent budget for the AM exchanges, the observational coverage for some of the branches is limited, which introduces considerable uncertainty. This lack of coverage is especially extreme for the surface outflow through the Denmark Strait, the overflow across the Iceland–Faroe Ridge, and the inflow over the Scottish shelf. We recommend that more effort is put into observing these flows as well as maintaining the monitoring systems established for the other exchange branches., This study was supported by European Framework Programmes under grant agreement no. GA212643 (THOR) and grant agreement no. 308299 (NACLIM), and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 727852 (Blue-Action). Bering Strait data and analysis were supported by NSF-Office of Polar Programs Arctic Observing Network grants PLR-1304052 & PLR1758565. The Davis Strait program (CML and BC) was supported by the US National Science Foundation under grants OPP0230381, ARC0632231, and ARC1022472, with additional support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. We thank WilkenJon von Appen and an anonymous referee for very constructive comments.

Gerald C. Bond established a Holocene series of North Atlantic ice rafted debris events based on quartz and hematite stained grains recovered from subpolar North Atlantic marine cores. These so-called ‘Bond events’ document nine large-scale and multi-centennial North-Atlantic cooling phases that might be linked to a reduced thermohaline circulation. Regardless of the high prominence of the Holocene North Atlantic ice rafted debris record, there are critical scientific comments on the study: the Holocene Bond curve has not yet been replicated in other marine archives of the North Atlantic and there exist only very few palaeo-climatic studies that indicate all individual Bond events in their own record. Therefore, evidence for consistent hydro-climatic teleconnections between the subpolar North Atlantic and distant regions is not clear. In this context, the Western Mediterranean region reveals key hydro-climatic sites for the reconstruction of a teleconnection with the subpolar North Atlantic. In particular, variability of Western Mediterranean winter precipitation might be the result of atmosphere-ocean coupled processes in the outer-tropical North Atlantic realm. Based on an improved Holocene δ18O record from Lake Sidi Ali (Middle Atlas, Morocco) we correlate Western Mediterranean precipitation anomalies with North Atlantic Bond events to identify a probable teleconnection between Western Mediterranean winter rains and subpolar North Atlantic cooling phases. Our data show a noticeable positive correlation between Western Mediterranean winter rain minima and Bond events during the Early Holocene and an opposite pattern during the Late Holocene. There is evidence for an enduring hydro-climatic change in the overall Atlantic atmosphere-ocean system and the response to external forcing during the Mid-Holocene. Regarding a potential climatic anomaly around 4.2 ka (Bond event 3) in the Western Mediterranean, a centennial-scale winter rain maximum is generally in phase with the overall pattern of alternating ‘wet and cool’ and ‘dry and warm’ intervals during the last 5,000 years.

The paper describes the new gridded WOCE-Argo Global Hydrographic Climatology (WAGHC) (Gouretski, 2018). The climatology has a one-fourth degree spatial resolution resolving the annual cycle of temperature and salinity on a monthly basis. Two versions of the climatology were produced differing by the spatial interpolation performed on isobaric or isopycnal surfaces respectively. The WAGHC climatology is based on the quality controlled temperature and salinity profiles obtained before January 2016 with the average climatological year being in the range 2008 to 2012. To avoid biases due to the significant step-like decrease of the data below 2 km the profile extrapolation procedure is implemented. We compare the WAGHC climatology to the one-fourth degree resolution isobarically averaged climatology WOA13, produced by the NOAA Ocean Climate Laboratory (Boyer et al., 2013) and diagnose a generally good agreement between these two gridded products. The differences between the two climatologies are attributed basically to the interpolation method and to the considerably extended data basis. Specifically, the WAGHC climatology improved the representation of the thermohaline structure both in the data poor polar regions and in several data abundant regions like the Baltic sea, Caspian sea, Gulf of California, Caribbean Sea, and the Weddell Sea. Further, the dependence of the ocean heat content anomaly (OHCA) time series on the baseline climatology was tested. Since the 1950s, the both baseline climatologies produce almost identical OHCA time series.

Thanks to the autonomous Argo floats of the OUTPACE cruise and of the THOT project, some features of intermediate flow dynamics, around 1000 m depth, within the Southwest and Central Pacific Ocean (156° E–150° W, around 19° S) are described. In the Coral sea, we highlight minima in dissolved oxygen of 140 μmol kg−1 that are associated with the signature of a southward transport of waters between two zonal jets: from the North Vanuatu Jet to the North Caledonia Jet. This transport takes place in the core of a cyclonic eddy or via the path between a cyclonic eddy and an anticyclonic one, highlighting the importance of mesoscale dynamics in upper thermocline and surface layers. Further east, we observe a strong meridional velocity shear with long-term float trajectories going either eastward or westward in the lower thermocline. More interestingly, these trajectories also exhibit some oscillatory features. Those trajectories can be explained by a single Rossby wave of 160 days period and 855 km wavelength. Considering the thermohaline context, we confirm the meridional shear of zonal velocity and highlight a permanent density front that corresponds to the interface between Antarctic Intermediate Waters and North Pacific Deep Waters. Hence both circulation and thermohaline contexts are highly favorable to instabilities and wave propagation.