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The present study examines interannual variability of Shallow Meridional Overturning Circulation (SMOC) using century long reanalysis data. The strength of the transport associated with SMOC is calculated by meridional overturning streamfunction. The interannual variability in SMOC is found maximum between the 5oS and 15oS and displaying strong signals after 1940s. A year for which the meridional overturning streamfunction detrended anomaly is greater (lesser) its standard deviation is identified as strong (weak) SMOC year. For strong (weak) SMOC year composite displayed more (less) southward transport (~2.5 Sv) and shown excess (less) subduction over the South Indian Ocean. During strong (weak) years, the excess (less) southward heat transport (~0.25PW) leads to reduction (increase) in the upper 200m Ocean Heat Content (OHC) and sea level over the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO). The results obtained are well supported by tide gauge and satellite measured sea level data for the available period. Further analysis reveals that the SMOC variability is primarily driven by change in zonal wind stress south of the equator and displayed association with the Southern Oscillation Index. The Ocean model-based sensitivity experiments confirms that the OHC variability over SWIO is closely associated with the SMOC variability and is primarily driven by local wind forcing as a response to El Niño Southern Oscillation. However, the role of remote forcing from Pacific through Oceanic pathway over SWIO is absent. Study attempts to provide a comprehensive view on the interannual variability of SMOC and its linkage to OHC variability over SWIO during last century.

Current glacier melt rates in West Antarctica substantially exceed those around the East Antarctic margin. The exception is Wilkes Land, where for example Totten Glacier underwent significant retreat between 2000 and 2012, underlining its sensitivity to climate change. This process is strongly influenced by ocean dynamics, which in turn changes in accordance with the evolution of the ice caps. Here, we present new oceanographic data (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen) collected during austral summer 2017 offshore the Sabrina Coast (East Antarctica) from the continental shelf break to ca 3000 m depth. This area is characterized by very few oceanographic in situ observations. The main water masses of the study area, identified by analysing thermohaline properties, are the Antarctic Surface Water with potential temperature θ>-1.5 ∘C and salinity S (σθ kg m−3), the Winter Water with -1.92<θ<-1.75 ∘C and 34.00 ∘C and S>34.5 (σθ>27.7 kg m−3), and Antarctic Bottom Water with -0.50<θ<0 ∘C and 34.6328.30 kg m−3). The latter is a mixture of dense waters from the Ross Sea and Adélie Land continental shelves. Such waters are influenced by the mixing processes they undergo as they move westward along the Antarctic margin, also interacting with the warmer Circumpolar Deep Water. The spatial distribution of water masses offshore the Sabrina Coast also appears to be strongly linked with the complex morpho-bathymetry of the slope and rise area, supporting the hypothesis that downslope processes contribute to shaping the architecture of the distal portion of the continental margin. Oceanographic data presented here can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.25919/yyex-t381 (CSIRO; Van Graas, 2021).

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.

Sea surface temperature (SST) in the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) pathway is sensitive to the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) and YSWC. However, the role of the YSWC in the evolution of regional SST remains unclear. Here, we present new $${\rm{U}}_{^{37}}^{{\rm{k}}\prime }$$ based SST and grain size sequences spanning the last 6 092 years in the sediment core Z1, which was retrieved from the central Yellow Sea muddy area. Overall, $${\rm{U}}_{^{37}}^{{\rm{k}}\prime }$$ -SST gradually increased since 6.1 ka BP, with a series of centennial-scale fluctuations. Its variation was mainly caused by EAWM when YSWC was weak between 6.1 and ∼3.9 ka BP, as shown by the end-member content of grain size. However, after YSWC was fully developed, i.e., since ∼3.9 ka BP, it exerted critical effects on SST evolution in its pathway. The 1 010, and 538-year cycles of the SST sequence indicated a basic control of solar activity on the oceanic conditions in the Yellow Sea. It is suggested that the variation of total solar irradiance was amplified by thermohaline circulation and then transmitted to the Yellow Sea through the EAWM. Meanwhile, the tropical Pacific signal of El Nino was transmitted to the YSWC through the Kuroshio Current. The dual properties of warm water transported by YSWC to compensate the EAWM and driving by Kuroshio Current closely linked the variation of SST in the YSWC pathway to the Northern Hemisphere high latitude climate and the tropical Pacific. These findings highlight the significance of YSWC on regional SST evolution and its teleconnection to high and low latitude forcing, which grains a better understanding of the long-term evolution of SST in the middle latitude Yellow Sea.

Thermohaline staircases are stepped structures of alternating thick mixed layers and thin high-gradient interfaces. These structures can be up to several tens of metres thick and are associated with double-diffusive mixing. Thermohaline staircases occur across broad swathes of the Arctic and tropical and subtropical oceans and can increase rates of diapycnal mixing by up to 5 times the background rate, driving substantial nutrient fluxes to the upper ocean. In this study, we present an improved classification algorithm to detect thermohaline staircases in ocean glider profiles. We use a dataset of 1162 glider profiles from the tropical North Atlantic collected in early 2020 at the edge of a known thermohaline staircase region. The algorithm identifies thermohaline staircases in 97.7 % of profiles that extend deeper than 300 m. We validate our algorithm against previous results obtained from algorithmic classification of Argo float profiles. Using fine-resolution temperature data from a fast-response thermistor on one of the gliders, we explore the effect of varying vertical bin sizes on detected thermohaline staircases. Our algorithm builds on previous work by adding improved flexibility and the ability to classify staircases from profiles with noisy salinity data. Using our results, we propose that the incidence of thermohaline staircases is limited by strong background vertical gradients in conservative temperature and absolute salinity.

In this study, diagnostic equations are proposed to quantitatively evaluate meridional overturning circulation (MOC) simulated in ocean general circulation models (OGCMs). Applicability of the equations is illustrated by revisiting the MOC simulated in an idealized ocean. The simulations with surface differential heating/cooling show that, for certain horizontal distribution of vertical diffusivity, the stronger vertical mixing does not intensify the MOC while it makes the deeper water less dense. This result, which is in marked contrast to the widely accepted idea that the stronger vertical mixing promotes upwelling and intensifies the MOC by making the deeper water less dense, was investigated using the diagnostic equations. It was found that geostrophy dominates the MOC, and the geostrophic flow normal to lateral boundaries induced intense upwelling/downwelling along the boundaries. These results indicate that the primary role played by the vertical mixing on the large-scale MOC is to change hydrostatic pressure fields (geostrophic flow fields), rather than to promote upwelling. The simulation with localized cooling on the other hand showed that the ageostrophic flows significantly contribute to small-scale features of the MOC, while the geostrophic flows determine large-scale structure of the MOC. The proposed equations will thus be useful to quantitatively diagnose the MOC dynamics in realistic OGCMs.

This paper analyzes the characteristics of the thermohaline fine-scale structure of the sub-Arctic front (SAF) in the Kuroshio–Oyashio confluence region using temperature, salinity, and current dat...

This paper presents a statistical analysis of time series obtained from the Aqualog profiler moored at the upper continental slope off the southeast Russian coast in the northwestern Sea of Japan from mid-April through mid–October 2015. The vertical conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) profiles with a high resolution (6 hours in time and 1 m in depth) were measured between 64 and 300 m, and the buoyancy frequency was estimated from these data. Buoyancy frequency and temperature data were decomposed to empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) in the depth-time domain. Fluctuations in the vertical stratification revealed by the buoyancy frequency were assessed and linked to the passage of dynamic structures near the mooring. In the anticyclonic structures, the stratification weakened above 120 m due to isopycnal bending down and strengthened below 165 m. Stratification changes occurred on an 8–13-day timescale due to the passage of mesoscale eddies near the mooring. Energetic fluctuations were also found over longer 20–30- and 80–130-day time scales. These processes were accompanied by temperature anomalies associated with horizontal advection above 150 m and with vertical pycnocline fluctuations in the deeper layer. Temperature anomalies moving in the vertical direction with an average speed of 1.7 × 10–2 cm/s (14.7 m/day) on timescales from 4 to 13 days were detected at the border between these layers which exhibited different kinds of stratification changes.

A recent linear stability analysis and a numerical simulation suggest that diffusive convection (DC), a regime of the double-diffusive convection, plays a potential role in onset of thermohaline–shear instability, implying that DC could contribute to turbulence production in the oceans. However, an existence of such a thermohaline–shear instability has not been examined in real oceans. We examine if this newly proposed instability mechanism exists in the subarctic North Pacific by analyzing our fine- and micro-scale turbulence measurement data. Vertical inversions were cautiously detected in seawater density profiles and used as a proxy for instability events for gradient Richardson number larger than the critical value of 1/4. We found that a portion of inversions were associated with active DC. Such DC-related inversions exhibited elevated levels of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate even for gradient Richardson number largely exceeding 1/4. Our estimate suggested that the thermohaline–shear instability contributes to roughly only 10% of the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy in the diffusively convective layer in our observation site.

The statistical characteristics and vertical thermohaline properties of mesoscale eddies in the Bay of Bengal are studied from the view of satellite altimetry data and Argo profiles. Eddy propagation preferences in different lifetimes, eddy evolution process, and geographical distribution of eddy kinetic properties are analyzed in this area. Eddies exist principally in the western Bay of Bengal, and most of them propagate westward. There is a clear southward (equatorward) preference for eddies with long lifetimes, especially for cyclones. Moreover, the eddies in different areas of the bay show different north-southward preferences. Evolution of eddy kinetic properties with lifetime shows that eddies have the significant three-stage feature: the growth period in the former one-fifth lifetime, the stable period in the middle two-fifth to four-fifth lifetime, and the dying period in the last one-fifth lifetime. Large-amplitude and high-intensity eddies occur only in the relatively confined regions of highly unstable currents, such as the East Indian Coastal Current and eastern Sri Lanka. Based on Argo profile data and climatology data, the eddy synthesis method was used to construct three-dimensional temperature and salt structures of eddies in this area. The mean temperature anomaly is negative/positive to the cyclonic/anticyclonic eddies in the upper 300×104 Pa, and below this depth, the anomaly becomes weak. The salinity structures of positive anomalies inside cyclonic eddies and negative anomalies inside anticyclonic eddies in the Bay of Bengal are not consistent with other regions. Due to the special characteristics of the water mass in the bay, especially under the control of the low-salinity Bay of Bengal water at the surface and the Indian equatorial water in the deep ocean, the salinity of seawater shows a monotonic increase with depth. For regional varieties of temperature and salinity structures, as the eddies move westward, the temperature anomaly induced by the eddies increases, the effecting depth of the eddies deepens, and the salinity structures are more affected by inflows. In the north-south direction, the salinity structures of the eddies are associated with the local water masses, which comprise low-salinity water in the northern bay due to the inflow of freshwater from rivers and salty water in the southern bay due to the invasion of Arabian Sea high-salinity water from the north Indian Ocean.

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?

Zonally averaged characteristics of the North Atlantic (NA) thermohaline circulation are investigated in different phases of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index over the past 70 years using ocean objective analyses EN4 and WOA13 and reanalyses GFDL, ESTOC, ORA-S4, and GECCO2. It is shown that similar thermohaline patterns appear in zonally averaged climatic trends and in differences in the composites of anomalies of the potential temperature and salinity fields for all data sets. To find out how the variability in the thermohaline state of waters in the NA is accompanied by the variability in its thermohaline circulation, we have analyzed the variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) stream function. The average AMOC stream functions calculated from ocean objective analyses and reanalyses, reflecting the NA thermohaline circulation, are generally similar to each other. Nonetheless, they can be divided according to their spatial structure into two groups: (EN4, WOA13, and GFDL) and (ESTOC, ORAS4, and GECCO2). In their trends and anomaly composite differences, the AMOC stream functions differ significantly among themselves, as well as from EN4 and WOA13. Moreover, the main distinction is in the sign of climatic trends and composite differences, which determines changes in the direction of the zonally averaged thermohaline circulation. It is found that positive and negative temperature (salinity) anomalies in alternating successive phases of the AMO index circulate with a period of roughly 60 years along the pathway of water in the AMOC, sinking into deep ocean layers at about 60° N and rising toward the surface at 25° N. This process is most pronounced for the EN4 and WOA13 objective analyses and ORAS4 reanalysis. It can be assumed that this mechanism contributes substantially to the formation of the AMO index phases.

Denitrification occurring in the oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea produces nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms controlling denitrification's intensity and evaluate its influence on the global climate at various timescales. We studied multiple geochemical and isotopic proxies in a sediment core from the southeastern Arabian Sea (SEAS) at a high (centennial-scale) resolution. We find that since the last glacial period, both the ventilation and the productivity caused by the South Asian summer monsoon played a major role in controlling the denitrification variability in SEAS. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and since the Holocene, denitrification increased in SEAS despite reduced monsoon-induced productivity. During the LGM, weakened thermohaline circulation resulted in reduced ventilation of the intermediate waters of SEAS, causing increased denitrification. During the Holocene, the increase in denitrification is caused by an enhanced inflow of oxygen-depleted Red Sea and Persian Gulf waters into the intermediate depth of SEAS owing to a rising sea level that prohibited ventilation by the Antarctic Intermediate Water. We further find millennial-scale synchronicity between denitrification in SEAS, global monsoons, and the North Atlantic climate, implying systematic linkages via greenhouse gases abundance.

The evolution of thermohaline structure at the upper ocean during three tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Northwest Pacific was studied in this study based on successive observation by two new-style underwater gliders during fall 2018. These remote-controllable gliders with CTD sensor enabled us to explore high frequency responses of temperature, salinity, mixed and barrier layers in the upper ocean to severe TCs in this area. Results showed that three significant cooling-to-warming and stratification destructing-to-reconstructing processes at the mixed layer occurred during the lives of three TCs. The maximal cooling of SST all reached ⩾=0.5°C although TCs with different intensities had different minimal distances to the observed area. Under potential impacts of solar radiation, tide and inertial motions, the mixed layer depth possessed significant high-frequency fluctuations during TC periods. In addition, barrier layers appeared and vanished quickly during TCs, accompanied with varied temperature inversion processes.

The results of measurement of the thermohaline parameters of water and currents in the Bransfield Strait in Antarctica during the expedition of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2020 are presented. A section of nine stations across the strait located in its central part and vertical distributions of temperature and salinity are analyzed. Intrusion of deep water from the southern branch of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current was found. Estimates of the current velocity and water transport are given. The total transport to the northeast was 5.03 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3/s).

Foraminifera distribution is one of the proxies used to reconstruct climatic conditions and paleoceanography. Specific species or groups of foraminifera can be associated with certain oceanographic parameters. As one of the entrances of Indonesia Through Flow (ITF), North Papua Waters has the role of channeling water masses from the Pacific Ocean to the Indonesian Waters. It is also influenced by global thermohaline circulation and ENSO. In this study, observations were made of changes in the distribution of foraminifera to reconstruct paleoclimate and paleoceanographic conditions in the North Papua Waters and their relation to global climate conditions. The analysis was performed on 246 cm core sediments with eight cm foraminifera observation intervals at sample depths 246-126 cm and four cm at sample depths of 126-0 cm. Pulleniatina spp., Neogloboquadrina spp., and Globorotalia spp., are used for radiocarbon dating. Planktonic abundant species of foraminifera are Pulleniatina obliqueloculata, Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, Globorotalia menardii, Globigerinoides ruber, Globigerinoides trilobus, and the benthonic are Melonis pompilideus, Pullenia bulloides, Oolina sp., Planulina bradyii, Oridorsalis umbonatus, Cibicides subhaidingerii, Eggrela bradyii, Planulina wuelestroffi, and Quinqueloculina spp.,. Division according to cluster analysis can show the difference between Holocene and Pleistocene, which is then more detailed divided into 17 clusters. Based on biozonation there are some events that can be observed: climate variability since Late Pleistocene, record Pleistocene-Holocene boundary based on the significant variability of foraminifera distribution, and records some of the global climate events such as Last Glacial Maximum (~19-17 kyr), Younger Dryas (~11-9 kyr), and 8,2K event.

Satellite data on the sea level heights and data of Argo floats for the southwestern Bering Sea and adjacent area of the North Pacific are analyzed. Interannual variability of the thermohaline structure and water dynamics caused by the nodal (declination) tide with the period of 18.6 years is revealed. The tidal-induced 18.6-year variability is traced in variations of the sea level, water temperature and direction and velocity of the geostrophic currents. Extreme strengthening (in 2006) and weakening (in 1997 and 2015) of nodal tides led to lowering/rising of the sea level heights in the southwestern Bering Sea and in the areas southward from the Near Strait and Commander Islands. The sea level lowering was associated with increasing of salinity and water density in the layer of 50–400 m; as the result, the salinity and density at the depth of temperature minimum (~100 m) were higher in 2005–2006 than in 2015–2016 by 0.20 psu and 0.14 kg . m–3, respectively. This increasing can be explained by transformation of the Alaskan Stream waters due to intensified tidal mixing in the Aleutian Passes and in the Near Strait. No statistically significant correlation between the sea level and amplitude of the nodal tide was found in the areas remoted from the straits. Another consequence of the sea level lowering was an appearance of cyclonic circulation northward and southward from the Near Strait and weakening of the Alaskan Stream in spring of 2006, with cessation of the flow from the Near Strait to the mainland coast that caused SST decreasing in the southwestern Bering Sea. Intensification (weakening) of nodal tides was accompanied by decreasing (increasing) of sockeye salmon catches at East Kamchatka and Aleutian Islands.

The waters offshore the Shandong Peninsula separate the North Yellow Sea from the South Yellow Sea, and receive a large amount of terrestrial material from Chinese and Korean rivers, making it an ideal area for studying land-sea interactions. However, little attention has been given to measuring sediment transportation in most previous studies. Based on an analysis in composition of major and trace elements and particle size characteristics from 62 surface sediment samples from the northeastern region off Shandong Peninsula, the type, element composition, and controlling factors of the surface sediments were investigated. In addition, the transportation of sediments from source to sink was described from measured thermohaline data. The results show two types of surface sediments: sandy silt and silt. The sediments were mainly terrestrial; and marine carbonate had little effect on sediment composition. Shown on a binary diagram of Rb/Sc to Co/Sc, the Huanghe (Yellow) and Changjiang (Yangtze) rivers are the main sources of surface sediments in the study area. The component mixing model showed that the relative contribution of sediment from the Huanghe River was up to 92%, followed by the Changjiang River (8%). The Yellow Sea Warm Current and the North Shandong Peninsula Coastal Current met at ~37.7°N in the study area, and were the main forces carrying sediment from the two main river sources. However, there was a deficit of transported material into the study area in summer. The secondary distribution of sediment from the two river sources was controlled by tidal currents and waves.

Based on the results of sea expeditions, interannual changes in structure of the ichthyocenosis in the pelagic zone of the southern shelf of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean were studied in connection with changes in the habitat. Mass pelagic fish were selected as reference biological species: European and West African horse mackerel, European sardine, Eastern mackerel, sea bream, sea snipe, myctophids, as well as non-commercial fish species. Field data were obtained during the implementation of complex oceanographic surveys in the fall seasons (October-November) 2015–2018. The results of control trawls were used, in which any species amounted to at least 70 % of the catch. The analysis of the species composition of the control trawls, data of hydroacoustic tracking of trawls, thermohaline water characteristics is carried out. Data pairing was carried out by phased extraction and transformation using standard computer programs for processing various types of data (acoustic, hydrological, ichthyological), as well as specially designed programs that allow you to create a single database. It has been established that recent changes in the number of commercial and by-catch species observed in the ARZ of Morocco in recent years are associated with the presence or absence of so-called “settlement windows”, which appear in the T, S‑diagram field by regions of different configurations, which indicates changes in the ratios of water masses. Based on the identified relationships between changes in the ratio of water masses and changes in the species composition of the control trawls of accounting replenishment surveys, estimates of the expected changes in the biomass of mass pelagic fish in the coming years are made.

In this work, based on the data on the sea surface temperature, deep-sea oceanographic observations, we studied the thermohaline and dynamic conditions of the Southern Primorye and open waters of the northwestern part of the Sea of Japan in the spring and summer of 2018. The features of the oceanological structure were revealed, and state and water conditions were estimated. Anticyclonic eddies were observed in the open waters of the northwestern part of the Sea of Japan. In the water circulation, its main components are shown, the roles of the Primorsky and West Sakhalin currents are highlighted. The concept of the structure and nature of the Primorsky Current has been expanded. It is shown that in the vertical structure of the waters of Peter the Great Bay (April) and the western part of the Tatar Strait (June) there existed the near-bottom and subsurface cold layers. In the waters of southern Primorye in May, these layers were not observed. Based on the meridional displacement of the vortex structures and the criterion for assessing the thermal regime of the waters of the northwestern part of the Sea of Japan — the average temperature of the subsurface layer 50–200 m — it was established that in the year under study the thermal regime of the sea was classified as warm.

A new version of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator coupled model, ACCESS-CM2, has been developed for a wide range of climate modelling research and applications. In particular, ACCESS-CM2 is one of Australia’s contributions to the World Climate Research Programme’s Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). Compared with the ACCESS1.3 model used for our CMIP5 submission, all model components have been upgraded as well as the coupling framework (OASIS3-MCT) and experiment control system (Rose/Cylc). The component models are: UM10.6 GA7.1 for the atmosphere, CABLE2.5 for the land surface, MOM5 for the ocean, and CICE5.1.2 for the sea ice. This paper describes the model configuration of ACCESS-CM2, documents the experimental set up, and assesses the model performance for the preindustrial spin-up simulation in comparison against (reconstructed) observations and ACCESS1.3 results. While the performance of the two generations of the ACCESS coupled model is largely comparable, ACCESS-CM2 shows better global hydrological balance, more realistic ocean water properties (in terms of spatial distribution) and meridional overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean but a poorer simulation of the Antarctic sea ice and a larger energy imbalance at the top of atmosphere. This energy imbalance reflects a noticeable warming trend of the global ocean over the spin-up period.

Eddy heat flux plays a fundamental role in the Southern Ocean meridional overturning circulation, providing the only mechanism for poleward heat transport above the topography and below the Ekman layer at the latitudes of Drake Passage. Models and observations identify Drake Passage as one of a handful of hot spots in the Southern Ocean where eddy heat transport across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is enhanced. Quantifying this transport, however, together with its spatial distribution and temporal variability, remains an open question. This study quantifies eddy heat flux as a function of ACC streamlines using a unique 20-yr time series of upper-ocean temperature and velocity transects with unprecedented horizontal resolution. Eddy heat flux is calculated using both time-mean and time-varying streamlines to isolate the dynamically important across-ACC heat flux component. The time-varying streamlines provide the best estimate of the across-ACC component because they track the shifting and meandering of the ACC fronts. The depth-integrated (0–900 m) across-stream eddy heat flux is maximum poleward in the south flank of the Subantarctic Front (−0.10 ± 0.05 GW m−1) and decreases toward the south, becoming statistically insignificant in the Polar Front, indicating heat convergence south of the Subantarctic Front. The time series provides an uncommon opportunity to explore the seasonal cycle of eddy heat flux. Poleward eddy heat flux in the Polar Front Zone is enhanced during austral autumn–winter, suggesting a seasonal variation in eddy-driven upwelling and thus the meridional overturning circulation.

A review is presented on physical oceanographic features based on expendable CTD data collected in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean. The thermohaline structure is dominated by Circumpolar Deep Water. The temperature and salinity are affected by cyclonic circulation in the Weddell Sea and Prydz Bay. High chlorophyll-a blooms (2-4 mg m-3) evolve during austral summer due to stratification which is caused by freshwater generated from the sea ice melt and the glacial outflow which traps phytoplankton in a shallow mixed layer, where they are exposed to higher irradiances of photosynthetically active radiation. Attempts have been made to relate the physical characteristics to biomass inferred from data published from previous Indian Scientific expeditions. More in-situ observations related to biophysical and chemical are recommended in the near future projects.

A toy model for the deep ocean overturning circulation in multiple basins is presented and applied to study the role of buoyancy forcing and basin geometry in the ocean’s global overturning. The model reproduces the results from idealized general circulation model simulations and provides theoretical insights into the mechanisms that govern the structure of the overturning circulation. The results highlight the importance of the diabatic component of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) for the depth of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and for the interbasin exchange of deep ocean water masses. This diabatic component, which extends the upper cell in the Atlantic below the depth of adiabatic upwelling in the Southern Ocean, is shown to be sensitive to the global area-integrated diapycnal mixing rate and the density contrast between NADW and Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). The model also shows that the zonally averaged global overturning circulation is to zeroth-order independent of whether the ocean consists of one or multiple connected basins, but depends on the total length of the southern reentrant channel region (representing the Southern Ocean) and the global ocean area integrated diapycnal mixing. Common biases in single-basin simulations can thus be understood as a direct result of the reduced domain size.

Shelf currents are formed by the wind, tides, and pressure gradient. Wind is usually the dominant energy source for coastal currents. This paper considers the formation of the coastal current under the effect of push-off wind and its influence on the thermohaline structure of Peter the Great Bay waters. When wind increases, a strong coastal current forms along the isobath and a transverse shelf flow is directed from shore in the upper layer. The push-off wind forms a two-layer circulation with ascending water in the lower layer and a feeder current in the upper layer. The flow in the upper layer causes sea level to drop and temperature to decrease. When the wind increases, anticyclonic circulation is formed to the right of the wind jet axis. The current velocity near the western shore of the bay reached 0.8 m/s and was directed northeast along the isobath. The coastal flow is triggered by a level tilt caused by the push-wind.

It is well established that the mean transport through Bering Strait is balanced by a sea level difference between the North Pacific and the Arctic Ocean, but no mechanism has been proposed to explain this sea level difference. It is argued that the sea level difference across Bering Strait, which geostrophically balances the northward throughflow, is associated with the sea level difference between the North Pacific and the North Atlantic/Arctic. In turn, the latter difference is caused by deeper middepth isopycnals in the Indo-Pacific than in the Atlantic, especially in the northern high latitudes because there is deep water formation in the Atlantic, but not in the Pacific. Because the depth of the middepth isopycnals is associated with the dynamics of the upper branch of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC), a model is formulated that quantitatively relates the sea level difference between the North Pacific and the Arctic/North Atlantic with the wind stress in the Antarctic Circumpolar region, since this forcing powers the MOC, and with the outcropping isopycnals shared between the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic circumpolar region, since this controls the location of deep water formation. This implies that if the sinking associated with the MOC were to occur in the North Pacific, rather than the North Atlantic, then the Bering Strait flow would reverse. These predictions, formalized in a theoretical box model, are confirmed by a series of numerical experiments in a simplified geometry of the World Ocean, forced by steady surface wind stress, temperature, and freshwater flux.

Meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is vital to distributing heat, freshwater, and dissolved matter in semienclosed deep marginal seas such as the East Sea (ES) (Sea of Japan). As our understanding of the ES MOC remains incomplete, we attempted to fill this research gap. We analyzed the ES MOC and its decadal change (1993–2012), employing Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) global reanalysis. We found that the ES MOC, consisting of two counterrotating overturning cells in the late 1990s, changed into a single full-depth cell in the 2000s and reverted to two cells in the 2010s. The decadal change relates to weakening of the southward western boundary current at the intermediate layer and northward eastern boundary currents at the deep abyssal layer. We propose that surface warming and salinification favored reduced intermediate water formation and enhanced bottom water formation in the northwestern ES in the 2000s and were, therefore, key to the decadal change. Conditions unfavorable to intermediate water formation and favorable to bottom water formation in the winters of the 2000s, compared with the late 1990s, enhanced northward (westward) Ekman transport in the southern (northeastern) ES, successive advection of surface warm, saline water into water formation areas, and air–sea heat and freshwater exchanges linked to the January Arctic Oscillation. Our results indicated that the ES MOC is sensitive to both external atmospheric forcing and internal ES processes, which have implications for significant changes in the response of other marginal seas and global oceans to future climate variability.

Significance This study describes measurements of the ocean beneath the center of the Ross Ice Shelf, the Earth’s largest ice shelf. Ice shelves experience melting from below by the ocean and so are vulnerable to a warming climate system. We present the second dataset ever collected from this region, the first having been gathered 40 y prior. Our data provide a basis for better understanding the complex processes that drive melting. They illustrate the degree of variability in the mid-water column, a region largely ignored in modeling. We also observed ephemeral refreezing on the ice shelf underside, with implications for both melt rate and upper ocean dynamics. This insight emphasizes the importance of in situ observations in undersampled environments., The stability of large Antarctic ice shelves has important implications for global sea level, sea ice area, and ocean circulation. A significant proportion of ice mass loss from these ice shelves is through ocean-driven melting which is controlled by largely unobserved oceanic thermodynamic and circulatory processes in the cavity beneath the ice shelf. Here we use direct measurements to provide evidence of the changing water column structure in the cavity beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, the planet’s largest ice shelf by area. The cavity water column data exhibit both basal and benthic boundary layers, along with evidence of tidally modulated and diffusively convecting internal mixing processes. A region of thermohaline interleaving in the upper–middle water column indicates elevated diffusion and the potential to modify the cavity circulation. The measurements were recorded using the Aotearoa New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Program hot water drill borehole melted in the central region of the shelf in December 2017 (HWD2), only the second borehole through the central region of the ice shelf, following J9 in 1977. These data, and comparison with the 1977 data, provide valuable insight into ice shelf cavity circulation and aid understanding of the evolution of the presently stable Ross Ice Shelf.

Open-ocean convection is a common phenomenon that regulates mixed layer depth and ocean ventilation in the high-latitude oceans. However, many climate model simulations overestimate mixed layer depth during open-ocean convection, resulting in excessive formation of dense water in some regions. The physical processes controlling transient mixed layer depth during open-ocean convection are examined using two different numerical models: a high-resolution, turbulence-resolving nonhydrostatic model and a large-scale hydrostatic ocean model. An isolated destabilizing buoyancy flux is imposed at the surface of both models and a quasi-equilibrium flow is allowed to develop. Mixed layer depth in the turbulence-resolving and large-scale models closely aligns with existing scaling theories. However, the large-scale model has an anomalously deep mixed layer prior to quasi-equilibrium. This transient mixed layer depth bias is a consequence of the lack of resolved turbulent convection in the model, which delays the onset of baroclinic instability. These findings suggest that in order to reduce mixed layer biases in ocean simulations, parameterizations of the connection between baroclinic instability and convection need to be addressed.

Significance A correct understanding of the iron and macronutrient dynamics at the termination of the global ocean conveyor belt circulation is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and its changes in geological timescale. Newly obtained and compiled datasets of iron and macronutrients with the vertical mixing magnitude in the subarctic Pacific and marginal seas indicate the processes that determine the nutritional status of intermediate waters and the mechanisms by which subpolar marginal seas fuel the North Pacific Ocean through the intermediate water. The intermediate water formation processes play a major role in the connection of nutrients between the deep water and the surface water above it, and sustain biological production, at the termination of the global nutrient circulation., The mechanism by which nutrients in the deep ocean are uplifted to maintain nutrient-rich surface waters in the subarctic Pacific has not been properly described. The iron (Fe) supply processes that control biological production in the nutrient-rich waters are also still under debate. Here, we report the processes that determine the chemical properties of intermediate water and the uplift of Fe and nutrients to the main thermocline, which eventually maintains surface biological productivity. Extremely nutrient-rich water is pooled in intermediate water (26.8 to 27.6 σθ) in the western subarctic area, especially in the Bering Sea basin. Increases of two to four orders in the upward turbulent fluxes of nutrients were observed around the marginal sea island chains, indicating that nutrients are uplifted to the surface and are returned to the subarctic intermediate nutrient pool as sinking particles through the biological production and microbial degradation of organic substances. This nutrient circulation coupled with the dissolved Fe in upper-intermediate water (26.6 to 27.0 σθ) derived from the Okhotsk Sea evidently constructs an area that has one of the largest biological CO2 drawdowns in the world ocean. These results highlight the pivotal roles of the marginal seas and the formation of intermediate water at the end of the ocean conveyor belt.

Dense water masses from the Barents Sea are an important part of the Arctic thermohaline system. Here, using hydrographic observations from 1971 to 2018, we show that the Barents Sea climate system has reached a point where ‘the Barents Sea cooling machine’—warmer Atlantic inflow, less sea ice, more regional ocean heat loss—has changed towards less-efficient cooling. Present change is dominated by reduced ocean heat loss over the southern Barents Sea as a result of anomalous southerly winds. The outflows have accordingly become warmer. Outflow densities have nevertheless remained relatively unperturbed as increasing salinity appears to have compensated the warming inflow. However, as the upstream Atlantic Water is now observed to freshen while still relatively warm, we speculate that the Barents Sea within a few years may export water masses of record-low density to the adjacent basins and deep ocean circulation. The Barents Sea cools the ocean, and dense water masses form that flow into the global overturning circulation. Hydrographic observations from 1971 to 2018 show reduced cooling efficiency with warmer Atlantic inflow, reduced sea ice and reduced wind-driven heat loss.

The variation in the strength and structure of the overturning circulation under varying Southern Ocean buoyancy forcing, corresponding to present day, a cooler (glacial) state, and a possible future warmer state is analyzed in an idealized two-basin general circulation model connected by a southern circumpolar channel. A connection between the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) cell in the Atlantic basin and the Pacific Deep Water (PDW) cell in the Pacific basin occurs with a direct flow of NADW into the channel’s lower cell, while PDW upwelled in the Pacific basin can flow directly into the upper wind-driven cell in the channel. The intersection of these cells along with direct zonal flows between the basins completes the interbasin circulation. The present-day Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in the model is upwelled both by wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean and by diffusion in the Pacific and Atlantic. In a cooler climate with enhanced sea ice, the NADW cell shoals, which can then no longer flow directly into the channel’s lower cell, reducing the Pacific pathway of NADW. This leads to a substantial weakening of the AMOC, suggesting buoyancy forcing changes can play a substantial role in the transition of the AMOC to a glacial state. In contrast, in a warmer equilibrium climate state with reduced AABW formation, the NADW cell strengthens and deepens. NADW is increasingly directed along the Pacific pathway, while the direct upwelling in the channel’s wind-driven upper cell plays a smaller role.

Field measurements carried out over 4 years made it possible to establish previously unknown features of the thermohaline fields and circulation of Lake Issyk-Kul. The most detailed salinity distribution maps for the entire history of observations were constructed. An area of slightly increased salinity was found in the central part of the lake, the specific “dipole” shape of which indicates the existence of not only a general cyclonic circulation, but also two separate gyres of a smaller, subbasin scale (which is partially confirmed by direct current velocity measurements). It has been established that, generally speaking, the salinity fields in Lake Issyk-Kul are extraordinarily conservative: its interannual and seasonal changes, as well as spatial variability throughout the lake (with the exception of estuarine regions), are usually measured only in hundredths of g kg–1. An important result of the project is the discovery of a subsurface salinity maximum persisting from year to year at depths from 70 to 130 m. As shown on the basis of balance estimates and then confirmed by analysis of direct current velocity measurements, autumn–winter differential cooling leads to the fact that in canyons (i.e., paleoriver channels) in the eastern littoral region, a significant amount (up to 1 km3) of cold coastal waters freshened by river runoff enters the bottom layers of the central part of the lake. These waters are then mixed with the overlying more saline waters, which, in a situation where the upper layer of the lake is also desalinated by river runoff, leads to a salinity maximum at intermediate depths. Our measurements do not confirm manifestations of global warming in the form of an interdecadal temperature increase in the deeper layers of Lake Issyk-Kul, which was previously reported: the current (in 2018) temperature at a depth of 500 m exactly coincided with that noted in the 2003 measurements, namely, about 4.44°C. However, one can point to a very weak (about 0.03 g kg–1) increase in the salinity of the bottom layer over the past 40 years.

Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water (ISOW) is a primary deep water mass exported from the Norwegian Sea into the North Atlantic as part of the global Meridional Overturning Circulation. ISOW has historically been depicted as flowing counter-clockwise in a deep boundary current around the subpolar North Atlantic, but this single-boundary-following pathway is being challenged by new Lagrangian observations and model simulations. We show here that ISOW leaves the boundary and spreads into the interior towards the central Labrador and Irminger basins after flowing through the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. We also describe a newly observed southward pathway of ISOW along the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The partitioning of these pathways is shown to be influenced by deep-reaching eddies and meanders of the North Atlantic Current. Our results, in tandem with previous studies, call for a revision in the historical depiction of ISOW pathways throughout the North Atlantic., Global ocean circulation overturns and starts anew in the North Atlantic, propagating climate signals to the rest of the oceans. Using drifter data, Zou and colleagues re-map the spreading pattern for one of the deep water masses and show the impact of mesoscale processes on that pattern.

Conductivity–temperature–depth (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 2002–2015 and a transect from the 1996 Polarstern expedition are used to describe the temperature and salinity characteristics and volume flow rates (volume transports) of the current carrying the Atlantic water (AW) in the Arctic Ocean. The variability of the AW on its pathway along the slope of the Eurasian Basin is investigated. A dynamic Fram Strait branch of the Atlantic water (FSBW) is identified in all transects, including two transects in the Makarov Basin (along 159∘ E), while the cold waters on the eastern transects along 126, 142, and 159∘ E, which can be associated with the influence of the Barents Sea branch of the Atlantic water (BSBW), were observed in the depth range below 800 m and had a negligible effect on the spatial structure of isopycnic surfaces. The geostrophic volume transport of AW decreases farther away from the areas of the AW inflow to the Eurasian Basin, decreasing by 1 order of magnitude in the Makarov Basin at 159∘ E, 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 a trend of an increase in AW salinity over time, which can be referred to as an AW salinization in the early 2000s. The maxima of θmax and S(θmax) in 2006 and 2013 are accompanied by the volume transport maxima. The time average geostrophic volume transports of AW are 0.5 Sv in the longitude range 31–92∘ E, 0.8 Sv in the St. Anna Trough, and 1.1 Sv in the longitude range 94–107∘ E.