During the 25th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition, GPS radiosondes were launched to detect the atmos- pheric vertical structure over the southeast Indian Ocean frontal region. Some low-level characteristics along the cruise are studied based on in-situ observation. The observations reveal that vertical distributions of the low-level wind field and air temperature field on both sides of the Subantarctic Front are very different. A stronger (weaker) vertical gradient is on the cold (warm) side, which demonstrates that the mid-latitude ocean-atmosphere interaction is active in the southeast Indian Ocean frontal region. A low-level jet is observed over the Subantarctic Front, with speed up to 14 m's-1. For the Antarctic polar front, low-level wind speed near the sea surface is greater than that aloft, in contrast with the situation of the Subantarctic Front. Comparing satellite remote sensing data and widely-used reanalysis datasets with our in-situ observations, differences of varying magnitudes are found. Air temperature from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data has a limited difference. The European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Interim Re-Analysis (ERA Interim) dataset is much more consistent with the observations than the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis 1 in the southeast Indian Ocean frontal region.
Tropical cyclone heat potential (TCHP) in the ocean can affect tropical cyclone intensity and intensification. In this paper, TCHP change under global warming is presented based on 35 models from CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5). As the upper ocean warms up, the TCHP of the global ocean is projected to increase by 140.6% in the 21st century under the RCP4.5 (+4.5 W m 2 Representative Concentration Pathway) scenario, The increase is particularly significant in the western Pacific, northwestern Indian and western tropical Atlantic oceans. The increase of TCHP results from the ocean temperature warming above the depth of the 26~C isotherm (D26), the deepening of D26, and the horizontal area expansion of SST above 26~C. Their contributions are 69.4%, 22.5% and 8.1%, respectively. Further, a suite of numerical experiments with an Ocean General Circulation Model (OGCM) is conducted to investigate the relative importance of wind stress and buoyancy forcing to the TCHP change under global warming. Results show that sea surface warming is the dominant forcing for the TCHP change, while wind stress and sea surface salinity change are secondary.
Because of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of anthropogenic sea level rise (SLR), it is very important to understand the processes leading to past and present SLRs towards more reliable future SLR projections. A regional ocean general circulation model (ROGCM), with a grid refinement in the Bohai, Yellow, and East China Seas (BYECSs), was set up to project SLR induced by the ocean dynamic change in the 21st century. The model does not consider the contributions from ice sheets and glacier melting. Data of all forcing terms required in the model came from the simulation of the Community Climate System Model version 3.0 (CCSM3) under the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-A2 scenario. Simulation results show that at the end of the 21st century, the sea level in the BYECSs will rise about 0.12 to 0.20 m. The SLR in the BYECSs during the 21st century is mainly caused by the ocean mass redistribution due to the ocean dynamic change of the Pacific Ocean, which means that water in the Pacific Ocean tends to move to the continental shelves of the BYECSs, although the local steric sea level change is another factor.
A modified Gauss-Markov model with weighted constraints was constructed by combining satellite altimeter and tide gauge records. Vertical motion rates of nine tide gauge stations around the Bohal Sea and Yellow Sea are estimated. This is the first time systematic estimates have been derived in this region. Downward trends were seen at the six tide gauge stations located at Tanggu, Longkou, Laohutan, Bayuquan, Xiaochangshan, and Yantai; with vertical motion rates of-1.82±0.50, -1.65±0.46, -0.88±0.42, -0.58±0.62, -0.13±0.43, and -0.01±0.43 mm/yr, respectively. Upward trends were seen at the three tide gauge stations located at Qinhuangdao, Huludao and Chengshantou; with vertical motion rates of 1.12±0.46, 0.55±0.49 and 0.26±0.44 mm/yr, respectively. There was significant subsidence in Tanggu and Longkou, and a rising trend in Qinhuangdao. According to our results, the rate of sea level rise calculated from these tide gauge records can be improved using a more accurate measurement of the land elevation accounting for lifting or subsidence. The model derived can be used to estimate vertical motions of tide gauge stations, and can be widely applied to revise the benchmark levels of tide gauges.
LIU ShouHuaCHEN ChangLinLIU KeXiuMU LinWANG HuiWU XinRongZHANG JianLiDUAN XiaoFengGAO Jia
Performances of 5 models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in simulating the chloro-phyll concentration over the tropical Indian Ocean are evaluated. Results show that these models are able to capture the dominant spatial distribution of observed chlorophyll concentration and reproduce the maximum chlorophyll concentration over the western part of the Arabian Sea, around the tip of the Indian subcontinent, and in the southeast tropical Indian Ocean. The seasonal evolution of chlorophyll concentration over these regions is also reproduced with significant amplitude diversity among models. All of 5 mod-els is able to simulate the interannual variability of chlorophyll concentration. The maximum interannual variation occurs at the same regions where the maximum climatological chlorophyll concentration is located. Further analysis also reveals that the Indian Ocean Dipole events have great impact on chlorophyll concentration in the tropical Indian Ocean. In the general successful simulation of chlorophyll concentration, most of the CMIP5 models present higher than normal chlorophyll concentration in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean.
LIU LinFENG LinYU WeidongWANG HuiwuLIU YanliangSUN Shuangwen
The intraseasonal oscillation(ISO)events that occurred from November 2007 to February 2008 in the tropical Indian Ocean region were investigated by analyzing observational oceanic and atmospheric datasets.The results reveal that two ISO events were generated and developed from November 2007 to February 2008 in the tropical area of the Indian Ocean,which both originated from the southern African continent and propagated along a northeastward direction and finally penetrated into the equatorial eastern Indian Ocean.Compared with the general winter MJO event,which tended to travel along the equator from the western Indian Ocean into the western Pacific,the ISO of winter 2007 propagated not only along the equator into the eastern part of the Indian Ocean but was also transported northward into the subtropical region in the eastern Indian Ocean,which is more similar to the behavior of traditional summer ISO events.