The arrival of recently formed Labrador sea water in the Deep Western Boundary Current at 26.5°N

Molinari, Robert L.; Fine, Rana A.; Wilson, W. Douglas; Curry, Ruth; Abell, Jeff; McCartney, Michael S.

doi:10.1029/98gl01853

Cited by 106 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The comparison indicates the arrival of LSW at Abaco some 8 to 10 years after formation in the Labrador basin. These advective times are somewhat shorter than previously hypothesized but consistent with other observations obtained in the central subtropical and eastern mid-latitude Atlantic (Molinari et al, 1998). Northern Penetration of the Retroflection (Hurrell, 1995) Indian-Atlantic ocean water exchange south of Africa is an important component of the global thermohaline circulation.…”

Section: Lower Layer Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Early studies estimated a LSW transit time from source to the subtropics of eighteen years (Smethie, 1993;Doney and Jenkins, 1994), but more recent analysis of temperature, salinity and tracer data suggests a time lag of 10 years from the Labrador Sea to the Bahamas (26.5 0 N) (Molinari et al, 1998). These contrasting results were interpreted by the researchers as possible fluxes in the energy state of the Gulf Stream and its recirculation, with the Deep Western Boundary Current linking more directly with the Labrador Sea when energy levels are relatively low and therefore establishing a shorter route.…”

Section: Changes Of Water Mass Properties Observed In the Bermuda Timmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3, bottom). Because of this variability a longer term trend towards freshening and cooling as suggested by Molinari et al (1998) could not yet be detected, a longer time series would be needed. The sites M2 and M3 exhibit temperature fluctuations on a monthly scale with those of M2 being of much more barotropic nature.…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Inter-ocean fluxes south of Africa in an eddy-permitting model

Reason

Lütjeharms

Hermes

et al. 2003

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Lower Layer Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Changes Of Water Mass Properties Observed In the Bermuda Timmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Inter-ocean fluxes south of Africa in an eddy-permitting model

Reason

Lütjeharms

Hermes

et al. 2003

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Newly formed LSW (late 1980s to mid-1990s) contains high concentrations of CFCs. Within years after formation they are observed as pulses of anomalously low salinity and high CFCs downstream in the DWBC [Molinari et al, 1998]. These anomalies will be at one or two stations along the boundary, while during a later occupation at the same location properties will not be anomalous.…”

Section: Property Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a CFC effective age to estimate propagation and storage of climate anomalies in the deep western North Atlantic Ocean

Fine¹,

Rhein

Andrié

2002

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1990s chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) observations are used to estimate an effective age of 20 years for North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) at the equator. The effective age is found by subtracting a “relic” age from pCFC‐11 age. The effective age is several to 10 years younger at the equator than other methods. From the effective age equatorward “effective” spreading rates of 1–2 cm/s are found, which are similar for the NADW components. Effective spreading rates take into account recirculation gyres, along‐equator flow, and mixing, which slow spreading of climate anomalies from the North Atlantic to the Southern Hemisphere. The difference between direct velocities and tracer effective spreading rates suggests that the buffering effect due to storage, in the western North Atlantic and equatorial region, is about 20 years. Even so, warming and freshening due to greenhouse gases will be first felt in the deep waters of the western North Atlantic.

show abstract

“…The chosen delay time of 10 years is only a rough estimate for the thermal-cryospheric-salinity and mechanical wind stress effects occurring within the Arctic and northern North Atlantic basins to propagate southward. But it is clear from both empirical evidence Molinari et al, 1998) and careful ocean modeling (Yang, 1999) that a physical delay of some 5 to 20 years is reasonable. Yang (1999), for example, pointed out a five-year delay for decadal variations in the Labrador Sea and the tropical Atlantic dipole index set by coastally trapped waves, rather than the probably longer advection time through the Deep Western Boundary Current (Goodman, 2001).…”

Section: Empirical Evidence and Mechanistic Explanation For Interrelamentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Arctic-Mediated Climate Variation on Multidecadal to Centennial Timescales: Empirical Evidence, Mechanistic Explanation, and Testable Consequences

Soon

2009

Physical Geography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

showed that the variable total solar irradiance (TSI) could explain, rather surprisingly, well over 75% of the variance for the decadally smoothed Arctic-wide surface air temperature over the past 130 years. The present paper provides additional empirical evidence for this physical connection, both through several newly published high-resolution paleo-proxy records and through robust climate-process modeling outputs. This paper proposes a mechanistic explanation, involving: (1) the variable strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) or thermohaline circulation (THC); (2) the shift and modulation of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) rainbelt and tropical Atlantic ocean conditions; and (3) the intensity of the wind-driven subtropical and subpolar gyre circulation, across both the North Atlantic and North Pacific. A unique test of this proposed solar TSI-Arctic thermal-salinity-cryospheric coupling mechanism is the 5-to 20-year delay effect on the peak Atlantic MOC flow rate centered near 30-35°N, and on sea surface temperature (SST) for the tropical Atlantic. The solar Arctic-mediated climate mechanism on multidecadal to centennial timescales presented here can be compared with and differentiated from both the related solar TSI and UV irradiance forcing on decadal timescales. The ultimate goal of this research is to gain sufficient mechanistic details so that the proposed solar-Arctic climate connection on multidecadal to centennial timescales can be confirmed or falsified. A further incentive is to expand this physical connection to longer, millennial-scale variability as motivated by the multiscale climate interactions shown by Braun et al. (2005), Weng (2005), and Dima and Lohmann (2009) . THE SOLAR ARCTIC-MEDIATED CLIMATE VARIATION ON MULTIDECADAL TO CENTENNIAL TIMESCALESPaleoclimatic proxies show ubiquitous, multidecadal to centennial-scale variabilities that may ultimately be associated with the persistent forcing by solar irradiance variability as properly projected and amplified through the annual progression of the Earth around the Sun (Table A1, Appendix). The present study indirectly assumes the optimal climatic response filter of the Earth ocean-atmosphere-ice system to peak around such multidecadal to centennial scales, which can be taken to be roughly 50 to 500 years (i.e., much less than 1000 years). The challenge of this research, then, must lie in the identification of relevant and/or dominant centers of climatic action (COAs; Table 1 lists acronyms used in this paper) and interactions among those COAs (Christoforou and Hameed, 1997;Rodionov et al., 2005;Huth et al., 2006;Lim et al., 2006). Huth et al. (2006) found a general tendency for atmospheric circulation modes 1 to be more zonal, with COAs covering wider areas and ARCTIC-MEDIATED CLIMATE VARIATION 145 teleconnection among different regions spanning longer distances when solar activity is strong. The hard task of separating the dynamics of the teleconnection from the actual physical mechanisms at CO...

show abstract

The arrival of recently formed Labrador sea water in the Deep Western Boundary Current at 26.5°N

Cited by 106 publications

References 15 publications

Inter-ocean fluxes south of Africa in an eddy-permitting model

Inter-ocean fluxes south of Africa in an eddy-permitting model

Using a CFC effective age to estimate propagation and storage of climate anomalies in the deep western North Atlantic Ocean

Solar Arctic-Mediated Climate Variation on Multidecadal to Centennial Timescales: Empirical Evidence, Mechanistic Explanation, and Testable Consequences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About