Seasonality and trend of the global upper-ocean vertical velocity over 1998–2017

Liao, Fanglou; Gao, Guandong; Zhan, Peng; Wang, Yan

Seasonality and trend of the global upper-ocean vertical velocity over 1998–2017

Embargo End Date

2024-04-29

Type

Article

Authors

Liao, Fanglou

Gao, Guandong
Zhan, Peng

Wang, Yan

KAUST Department

Beacon Development Company
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Date

2022-04-29

Abstract

The ocean vertical circulation has been historically underappreciated compared to the lateral circulation, largely due to the poor availability of the ocean vertical-velocity information. With the advent of high-performance ocean models, especially those constrained by the most available observations, it is now possible and incentive to dig into the vertical branch of ocean circulation. In this study, we used a state-of-the-art and dynamically-consistent ocean state estimate to investigate the seasonal variations and trend of the global upper-ocean (in the top 200 m) vertical velocity, with emphasis on the widely recognized upwelling and downwelling systems. Significant seasonal variations were noted. All around the global ocean, the North Indian Ocean and the Equator exhibited the strongest seasonality. There existed an equatorial Rossby wave propagating the equatorial Pacific upwelling at a phase speed of approximately −0.60 m/s (westward). Over 1998–2017, there were not basin-scale patterns of statistically-significant trend in the upper-ocean vertical velocity. In addition, our results did not support the classical Bakun's 1990 hypothesis on the upwelling intensification along the major eastern boundary upwelling systems in the context of global warming. This, however, may be due to the short period considered in this study. Four extended datasets were also examined. Patterns of seasonal variations were largely robust among these datasets. Results from these extended datasets further confirmed that there were not basin-scale patterns of statistically significant intensification or weakening of vertical circulations in the top 200 m of the global ocean during 1998–2017.

Citation

Liao, F., Gao, G., Zhan, P., & Wang, Y. (2022). Seasonality and trend of the global upper-ocean vertical velocity over 1998–2017. Progress in Oceanography, 204, 102804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2022.102804

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments. We are grateful for the public access to ECCO datasets and the gcmfaces toolbox for data analysis. Public access to extended datasets (BRAN, OFES, OMEGA3D and SODA) are also greatly appreciated. Comments from Prof. Xiao Hua Wang on an earlier version of this manuscript was helpful. F. Liao and Y. Wang are supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (ECS26307720, GRF16305321), and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (SMSEGL20SC01). G. Gao is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42006004, 42090044) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB42000000). ECCOv4r4: https://www.ecco-group.org/; BRAN2020: https://dapds00.nci.org.au/thredds/catalog/gb6/BRAN/BRAN2020/catalog.html; OFES_QSCAT: http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/dods/public_ofes/OfES; OMEGA3D: https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/products; SODA3.3.1: http://apdrc.soest.hawaii.edu/dods/public_data/SODA/soda_3.3.1.