Speleothem CaCO3 δ18O is a commonly employed paleomonsoon proxy. However, inferring local rainfall amount from speleothem δ18O can be complicated due to changing source water δ18O, temperature effects, and rainout over the moisture transport path. These complications are addressed using δ18O of planktonic foraminiferal CaCO3, offshore from the Yangtze River Valley (YRV). The advantage is that the effects of global seawater δ18O and local temperature changes can be quantitatively removed, yielding a record of local seawater δ18O, a proxy that responds primarily to dilution by local precipitation and runoff. Whereas YRV speleothem δ18O is dominated by precession-band (23 ky) cyclicity, local seawater δ18O is dominated by eccentricity (100 ky) and obliquity (41 ky) cycles, with almost no precession-scale variance. These results, consistent with records outside the YRV, suggest that East Asian monsoon rainfall is more sensitive to greenhouse gas and high-latitude ice sheet forcing than to direct insolation forcing.
In recent years, high-resolution ("eddying") global three-dimensional ocean general circulation models have begun to include astronomical tidal forcing alongside atmospheric forcing. Such models can carry an internal tide field with a realistic amount of nonstationarity, and an internal gravity wave continuum spectrum that compares more closely with observations as model resolution increases. Global internal tide and gravity wave models are important for understanding the three-dimensional geography of ocean mixing, for operational oceanography, and for simulating and interpreting satellite altimeter observations. Here we describe the most important technical details behind such models, including atmospheric forcing, bathymetry, astronomical tidal forcing, self-attraction and loading, quadratic bottom boundary layer drag, parameterized topographic internal wave drag, shallow-water tidal equations, and a brief summary of the theory of linear internal gravity waves. We focus on simulations run with two models, the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm). We compare the modeled internal tides and internal gravity wave continuum to satellite altimeter observations, moored observational records, and the predictions of the Garrett-Munk (1975) internal gravity wave continuum spectrum. We briefly examine specific topics of interest, such as tidal energetics, internal tide nonstationarity, and the role of nonlinearities in generating the modeled internal gravity wave continuum. We also describe our first attempts at using a Kalman filter to improve the accuracy of tides embedded within a general circulation model. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of modeling stationary internal tides, non-stationary internal tides, and the internal gravity wave continuum spectrum for satellite altimetry and other applications. Introductionhis book chapter is about global modeling of oceanic internal tides and the oceanic internal gravity wave continuum. The chapter focuses on hydrodynamical modeling, rather than empirical modeling, of such motions. Due to the operational oceanography theme of the book in which this chapter resides, we focus on high-spatial-resolution numerical models run over relatively short time scales-i.e., simulations that could form the dynamical backbone of operational models-rather than on lower-resolution models run over decades or centuries for climate forecasting purposes. In this introductory section, after defining internal gravity waves and internal tides, we discuss the motivation for, requirements for, and history of global modeling of internal tides and the internal gravity wave continuum. A subsequent section focuses on the technical details underlying such models, such as atmospheric forcing, bathymetry, astronomical tidal forcing, self-attraction and loading, quadratic bottom boundary layer drag, parameterized topographic internal wave drag, shallow-water tidal equations, and a brief synopsis of internal wave theor...
Semidiurnal baroclinic tide sea surface height (SSH) variance and semidiurnal nonstationary variance fraction (SNVF) are compared between a hydrodynamic model and altimetry for the low-to middle-latitude global ocean. Tidal frequencies are aliased by ∼10-day altimeter sampling, which makes it impossible to unambiguously identify nonstationary tidal signals from the observations. In order to better understand altimeter sampling artifacts, the model was analyzed using its native hourly outputs and by subsampling it in the same manner as altimeters. Different estimates of the semidiurnal nonstationary and total SSH variance are obtained with the model depending on whether they are identified in the frequency domain or wavenumber domain and depending on the temporal sampling of the model output. Five sources of ambiguity in the interpretation of the altimetry are identified and briefly discussed. When the model and altimetry are analyzed in the same manner, they display qualitatively similar spatial patterns of semidiurnal baroclinic tides. The SNVF typically correlates above 80% at all latitudes between the different analysis methods and above 60% between the model and altimetry. The choice of analysis methodology was found to have a profound effect on estimates of the semidiurnal baroclinic SSH variance with the wavenumber domain methodology underestimating the semidiurnal nonstationary and total SSH variances by 68% and 66%, respectively. These results produce a SNVF estimate from altimetry that is biased low by a factor of 0.92. This bias is primarily a consequence of the ambiguity in the separation of tidal and mesoscale signals in the wavenumber domain. Key Points:• Hydrodynamic models incorporating mesoscale dynamics and tides are beginning to resolve stationary and nonstationary baroclinic tides • The ratio of nonstationary to total semidiurnal variance computed from altimetry and HyCOM simulations agrees at low and middle latitudes • Comparisons of analysis methodologies show that total and nonstationary semidiurnal variances are underestimated in altimetry on
Recent work demonstrates that high-resolution global models forced simultaneously by atmospheric fields and the astronomical tidal potential contain a partial internal (gravity) wave (IW) spectral continuum. Regional simulations of the MITgcm forced at the horizontal boundaries by a global run that carries a partial IW continuum spectrum are performed at the same grid spacing as the global run and at finer grid spacings in an attempt to fill out more of the IW spectral continuum. Decreasing only the horizontal grid spacing from 2 to 0.25 km greatly improves the frequency spectra and slightly improves the vertical wavenumber spectra of the horizontal velocity. Decreasing only the vertical grid spacing by a factor of 3 does not yield any significant improvements. Decreasing both horizontal and vertical grid spacings yields the greatest degree of improvement, filling the frequency spectrum out to 72 cpd. Our results suggest that improved IW spectra in regional models are possible if they are run at finer grid spacings and are forced at their lateral boundaries by remotely generated IWs. Additionally, consistency relations demonstrate that improvements in the spectra are indeed due to the existence of IWs at higher frequencies and vertical wavenumbers when remote IW forcing is included and model grid spacings decrease. By being able to simulate an IW spectral continuum to 0.25 km scales, these simulations demonstrate that one may be able to track the energy pathways of IWs from generation to dissipation and improve the understanding of processes such as IW-driven mixing. Plain Language Summary Models of internal waves (IWs) may help us to better understand the spatial geography of mixing in the ocean and are playing an increasingly important role in the planning of satellite missions. Following recent work showing that high-resolution global models contain a partial IW spectrum, this paper describes further improvements in the spectrum seen in a high-resolution regional model forced at the boundaries by a previously performed global IW simulation. Decreasing only the horizontal grid spacing greatly improves the frequency spectra and slightly improves the vertical wavenumber spectra of velocity. Increasing only the number of vertical levels does not yield any significant improvements. Decreasing both horizontal and vertical grid spacings yields the greatest improvement in both spectra. Our results suggest that regional models can exhibit improved IW spectra over global models if two conditions are met-they must have higher horizontal and vertical resolutions, and they must have remotely generated IWs at their boundaries. Application of the so-called consistency relations demonstrates that the model is indeed carrying a field of high-frequency IWs. Being able to simulate a fuller IW spectrum demonstrates that one may be able to use these models to improve the understanding of IW-driven processes and energy pathways.
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